I don't know if looking way off in the distance while landing a helicopter and hovering it is the most accurate way to do it....

.... been sitting here just remembering where I was looking when we used to land the S61 on the deck of the barge we used in the heli logging business as our base away from base.

The landing pad was not all that big and there was a big superstructure in front of the landing pad......we had about maybe fifteen feet from the rotor disk to the superstructure when we were in the center of the pad.

....ahhh now I remember ......I was looking at the touch down marks on the landing pad and the wall in front of the blades...not way out in the far distance.

The last 10' took me a looooong time to work out as I tended to fly it into the ground. Some years after getting my license, I went to an optometrist instead of an opthamologist for my eyeglass prescription. The next flight I made a perfect landing 3' high -- and got the new picture. So do check with an optometrist if you need prisms.

I too agree with shifting your focus to the end of the runway in the flare. It also helps taking off in taildraggers, also on a runway with gradient.

For judging when to flare, watch for when you can distinguish individual blades of grass or pavement texture. Find some exterior stairs or a home TV antenna tower and climb up 10-15' to get the picture.

No need to re-write your article Chuck, SD linked to your original post in this thread

http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...ng-height.html

Your original thread is here

http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...ing-flare.html

Check your pm's Chickgeek and good luck with your landings!

Well guys, After being cancelled due to weather last week, I finally managed to get a few circuits and I am pleased to say my landings were much much better!

What I found for me personally was that I was focusing too much on the inside and the closest part of the runway as oppose to looking further down the runway and the view overall. As soon as I starting looking further afield I could gauge my height property and thus judge when to flare! The weather conditions started to favour me too which helped - initally I was working with a 13kt crosswind but by the end, it was down to 6kt and my penultimate landing was in the words of my instructor 'perfection'.

Still a little way to go, but thank you all for your help! :)

That`s awesome.

It is a great feeling when the landings finally start to happen for you!

Just another friendly word of advice , don`t be too disappointed if you are out of the circuit for a while , doing Nav or Forced approaches or whatever and find that your landings degenerate a little.

This happened to me , I was calling myself `Captain Kangaroo`at one point, and considering requesting a `bounce and go`from ATC, as thats all I seemed able to do!

You will go through phases of landing greasers and then one firmer landing and it takes a while to get back!
That slight change in confidence is all that it takes to make you that little more apprehensive.
I remember when I raced cars and we had a short qualifying session to get a fastest time.
You could look at the times. They would climb slowly, plateau, fraction bit by bit!
Scare yourself by nearly loosing the car and the times dropped right back to slowly start increasing again but not enough time.
One guy did not do that and he had a method called mental overide.
The lap and corner he scared himself in the next lap he over rode that caution and planted his foot harder.
So if you have one bad landing on the next! over ride your fear, throw it away and positive talk yourself into making a greaser :ok:

Pace

I read this method and a question comes to mind.

How would this method work in the aerial application business where all your flare points will be conducted from just finishing a low altitude turn?

Then if you are successful using the Jacobson flare and flare at the desired height and airspeed say two feet above the ground if you then look a mile ahead at two feet above the ground to maintain two feet down the field you are spraying how long will you live?

:ok: Chicgeek check your pm's

I am concerned with a flare height a flare can be at 2 feet or 20 feet a landing can be at the stall or way above the stall.
Strangely fixing an aim point usually works out best prior to the numbers changing that to the numbers so you touch down on the numbers.

Pace