Hi again Blue Hauler:
Where is YBBN?
It has become very common for instructors to teach their students to look at the far end of the runway to judge height for the round out / flare or whatever you wish to call the transition from the approach attitude to the level attitude that is necessary to arrest the rate of decent to prevent the thing from slamming into the earth at a high sink rate.
It matters not if it is a first time student or your Labrador retreiver that is attepmting to judge the flare height, simple triangulatin will prove that the further ahead you look the more shallow becomes the sight angle and the less accurate your ability to define the actual height above the surface.
The most accurate means to judge the closing rate with the surface and thus the actual height above same is to use the flare point as your reference during the latter stages of the approach. Once you determine the moment to begin the flare by reference to the flare point you then shift your sight point further ahead of that point.
Lets use another example of judging relative distance and sight angles to accomplish another task.
Imagine you are operating a Cat Bulldozer and your task is to make a level parking area in an uneven field that is one mile long and you are to make this level area at the south end of said field.
How sucessful do you think you would be in determining the proper angles for a level surface if you looked at the far end of the field one mile away, rather than looking at the target area where you were attempting to level the surface.
Judging landing height is no different, the further away one looks the less accurate your height judgement will be, same goes for your Lab. Retreiver he also will be less acurate in judging height the further away he looks.
There is a sad lacking of the understanding and teaching of attitudes and movements and proper attitude control in flight training to day. The ability to judge landing heights and attitudes are very basic and necessary skills to develope and also very easy to teach if the teacher understands the subject himself / herself.
Now please do not take this as any personal attack on you mate, that is not my intention, rather I am trying to develope an open and serious examination on why so many pilots stuff up on landing.
So you be nice to me, cause I am your friend.
Cat Driver: