F.F.F. :
Good morning.
These damn computers make it difficult for me to clearly express what I am trying to say.
So lets break this down into three distinct phases of the approach and landing.
Phase one:::
The final approach..........your center of sight should be the area on the runway where you plan to flare for the landing.
Phase two:::
The actual flare from the approach attitude to flight parrallel to the runway, to best judge the closure rate and thus your height above the flare point ( that area of the runway where you have planned to change attitude to parrellel the runway ) you should still have your center of sight focused on this point.
Phase three:::
The remainder of the landing phase..........the hold off in the level attitude where speed and lift decays and the airplane sinks toward touch down on the runway........... when you were in the approach attitude you were looking straight ahead at the runway so when the flare starts if you remain looking straight ahead your field of vision will rotate with the attitude change and you will be now looking straight ahead down the runway..........
What seperates a good pilot from a zombie waiting for contact with mother earth is the pilot who can accurately judge height and sink rate to the touchdown while constantly adjusting attitude so as to land at the most desireable attitude...speed.... sink rate for the aircraft being flown.....
Now would you try something next time you are driving down one of your Motorways? At normal motorway speed note the movement of the center line hash marks ( or center line stripes. )
You will note that directly in front of your car the stripes are blurred do to the fast movement of your closure on them.....now look progressively farther ahead and there will be a fixed distance ahead where the apparent movement of the stripes do not seem to be moving toward you.....this will be several hundred feet ahead of your vehicle depending on your eye height above the road and your speed...... that is the distance ahead that will give the best visual clues for speed , height and sink rate......
This is because your eyes will be able to compute your position in space by comparing near...center...and far distances to best form the picture...
So.......as Wolfgang stated you look well foward at a distance of several hundred feet ahead of the airplane...
But that is only after you have actually changed your attitude from the approcah attitude to the actual flare....
P.S.
Dont crash your car while playing around with the road stripes picture.
If anyone still needs more or a better description of what I am trying to say...just ask.
Cat Driver:
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no.