Originally Posted by 737 Jock
You can fly the aircraft in a fixed pitch attitude and use thrust to arrest the rate of descent until touchdown.
Hmm. Well, you
can, but... How's the speed going to reduce from Vapp to Vref for the touchdown if you're increasing power to arrest the descent? Not what the 737 FCTM says.
Originally Posted by Noodle
Flare needs depend on a thousand different factors.
No, only two: sink rate and speed reduction. That's all. You still haven't actually told us how you land, Noodles. You just keep pointing the stick and at the flare point jam on some power? Or do you pull the stick back to reduce the speed and put the power up to reduce the descent rate? What do you do when it says "Retard"?
But you apparently want to make a big point about the following 3 options which happen to be exactly the same:
Picker's and my point is you use the primary effects of controls to control the aeroplane. That's all. If you're low on slope, pull the stick back to get back on it pronto. If necessary, adjust the thrust to maintain or regain the speed. Just like the AP and autothrottle does on an ILS. If you're on the glidselope and slow, you don't push the nose down...do you?? Don't use the secondary effects of controls to control the aeroplane.