A320 Flare Mode

[slate100]

People say that the reason the 320 will automatically start pitching the nose down at 30 feet RA is to force the pilot to flare.

But I still don't see the reason for forcing the pilot to manually flare. Why did Airbus make it this way?

I've heard people saying the plane will just float the down the runway without Flare Mode...

But you're cutting the throttle at 30 feet so how's it going to float down the runway for very long??? And you're flaring anyway...

Can anyone enlighten me?

[S speed]

It's not about forcing the pilot to flare, the nose down command at 30ft enables the pilot to hold a constant back pressure during the flare like you would do on a non fbw aircraft.

If Airbus didn't do this you would have a much higher chance of tail strikes because the flare would be a rate of change pitch request like normal law, and when you "held off" the stick the aircraft would continue to increase the pitch attitude to comply with the requested rate of change.

[vilas]

True! Even conventional aircraft during flare being speed stable pitch down towards the in trim speed more so when the thrust is reduced. In Airbus, being flight path it doesn't happen also In airbus stick out of neutral is g command causes continuous pitch up so pilot will have to neutralize the stick after every aft movement. The flare mode causes artificial pitch down so that during flare and touch down stick can be kept out of neutral as required. It's called the flare mode. Since this mode cannot be effected with certain failures the aircraft is put in direct law to turn it into a conventional aircraft behavior.