I'm not saying anything about how long it takes. You can simply feel up and downdrafts by the seat of your pants. Therefore you can immediately add or reduce thrust as required, that there still might be a little speed excursion is hardly the point.
There is no reason to feel the updraft, push on the nose and then wait until you see a speed excursion before you reduce thrust. Nor is there a reason to feel the updraft, allow the vertical speed to reduce and then decrease thrust to increase the vertical speed.
In the flare the groundeffect reduces the energy required to maintain the flightpath, plus we want to alter the flightpath by reducing vertical speed. So in the flare we exchange airspeed for a reduced vertical speed and we reduce thrust because we need less energy due to the groundeffect.
Any additional external upsets in the flare require a change in energy/ a change in the rate of energy change, so we either reduce thrust slower or faster. And in extreme cases might even need to add power.
A computer can't anticipate, it can only react after the fact. Humans can anticipate.
Pitch controls both vertical speed and airspeed, thrust controls energy. However energy is not easy to quantify. Therefore energy can be linked to airspeed, but it can also be linked to vertical speed. Both airspeed and vertical speed are an indication of the energy of the aircraft.
Therefore both statements, thrust is speed and thrust is vertical speed are true.
The path is a combination of airspeed and vertical speed, so the statement that thrust is path is also true. In the end Pitch + Power = Performance.
I always said that we manipulate pitch and thrust simultaneously. And on top of that thrust often also has a direct effect on potch because its not delivered in the centerline.
Last edited by 737Jock; 28th Mar 2014 at 01:55.