Author: David Jacobson

After 100 years, the explanation of HOW to land a plane simply could not be made any harder … so we made it easier

After 100 years, the explanation of HOW to land a plane simply could not be made any harder … so we made it easier

When learning to fly in 1965, at just 17 years old, I couldn’t understand why an intelligent explanation of how to land a plane didn’t seem to exist. Everything else in the training  syllabus was well defined and easily understood … but NOT the landing. It is almost still the case today.

First, my early instructors insisted that I flew the approach using the secondary effects of controls, rather than the primary effects. The net result was a roller coaster path, instead of a straight-line fully stabilised approach and I could never achieve a consistent threshold crossing height.

Second, the decision on when to commence flaring the airplane was made on the basis of guesswork, rather than something more accurate. So, every landing was haphazard and unpredictable. This accounts for the statistics on landing accidents remaining virtually unchanged, for over 50 years.

Fortuitously, as I trained for my CPL, a senior ex-RAF instructor confirmed that, for powered aeroplanes, it was essential to use the primary effects of the flight controls to control a stabilised flight path angle … and I never looked back, even much later on sailplanes (gliders), using the airbrake instead of the throttle, to control IAS. It also turned out to be the standard approach technique employed by the RAAF and all major airlines. Sadly, to this day, many pilots are still taught how to land the hard way. It makes it impossible to fly a consistent and accurate approach path, let alone achieve a good landing.

I knew also that the 1943 RAF 617 Squadron ‘Dambusters’ had applied triangulation techniques very effectively and was certain they could also be applied to fix the landing flare point, instead to relying on an inaccurate (and, as it turned out, compounding of any errors in the) assessment of vertical height. Instead of waiting for each individual pilot to ‘get the hang’ of landing, initially and then on each successive airplane conversion.

It took 20 years of solid airline experience under my belt, before I dared to challenge the conventional wisdom that competency in landings can only be achieved by developing the required judgment and perception through repetition, guesswork and other trial-and-error methods, that are basically unchanged since the end of WW1, in 1918.

The result is the Jacobson Flare, the world’s first and only universal, quantifiable, safest and most SIMPLE approach and landing training technique.

Wishing you many safe landings

 

Captain David M Jacobson FRAeS MAP

 

Would you care to experience that unsurpassed sense of accomplishment, derived from executing consistently beautiful landings, more often?

For starters, Download the FREE Jacobson Flare LITE, our no fuss/no frills introduction. Here we demonstrate, step by step, the application of the Jacobson Flare on a typical grass airstrip at Porepunkah, YPOK.

 

We invite you to browse the consistently positive comments on our Testimonials page. Many pilots, of all levels of experience, have downloaded our Apps. Read about their own experiences with the Jacobson Flare technique and the App.

Then download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare app – for iOS. You’re already possibly paying $300+/hour to hire an aeroplane: You’ll recover the cost of the app, in just ONE LESS-NEEDED CIRCUIT. Moreover, you’ll have an invaluable reference tool, throughout your entire life in aviation.

Download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare App for iOS devices now.

 

We invite you, also, to review our new, FREE companion app,

offering a convenient way of staying abreast of our latest blogs.

 

Download the Jacobson Flare NEWS App for iOS devices now.

What’s it like to land a plane perfectly, EVERY time? Find out for just US$49.99

What’s it like to land a plane perfectly, EVERY time? Find out for just US$49.99

Think about it. How would it be NOT spending excessive hours and a small fortune to go solo? Find out how, for just US$ 49.99.

Many student pilots are disheartened by the excessive time it takes them to master the approach and landing and get to their first solo. 30+ hours is just ridiculous. Conventional ‘wisdom’ still has it that learning how to land a plane “is a matter of judgment and there is no simple way of teaching judgment to those to whom it does not come easily. Proficiency is attained mainly through practice … ” That simply isn’t true.

Yet many experienced pilots and flight instructors still subscribe to this ‘wisdom’; they cannot adequately describe exactly HOW they themselves land: “You just get the hang of it” is a common response – or ‘Stuffed if I know” – or “Close my eyes and hope for the best”. The problem is that most pilots have to get the hang of it over and over again, on each and every subsequent airplane conversion, at some indeterminate time. It’s just ridiculous!

And student pilots suffer only because ‘It’s always been done it this way’. It’s been handed down, unchallenged, since 1918 or so, while everything else in aviation has progressed incredibly!

Well, none of this has been necessary since 1987, when the Jacobson Flare was first published and especially since 2014, when the Jacobson App for iPad was released.

In order to learn how to land a plane consistently well, a pilot must be able to understand and answer the following questions – and flight instructors should be able to explain and demonstrate them to their students, at any level of experience:

1. Where to aim?
2. How to aim?
3. When to flare?
4. How much to flare? And
5. How fast to flare?

No training manuals or text books and few flight instructors can answer even one of these questions, let alone all five.

Without this precise and vital knowledge, the approach and landing manoeuvre remains elusive, inconsistent, expensive (in terms of training time, cost, wear/tear/damage to airplanes, pilot and instructor stress and runway occupancy times) and, most importantly, remains far too high in accident statistics. All because “We’ve always done it this way.”

So, how would it be NOT spending many hours and a small fortune to go solo, or complete that next airplane conversion?

Find out HOW to answer these 5 questions – and many more – for just $US 49.99

 

Wishing you many safe landings

 

Captain David M Jacobson FRAeS MAP

 

Would you care to experience that unsurpassed sense of accomplishment, derived from executing consistently beautiful landings, more often?

For starters, Download the FREE Jacobson Flare LITE, our no fuss/no frills introduction. Here we demonstrate, step by step, the application of the Jacobson Flare on a typical grass airstrip at Porepunkah, YPOK.

 

We invite you to browse the consistently positive comments on our Testimonials page. Many pilots, of all levels of experience, have downloaded our Apps. Read about their own experiences with the Jacobson Flare technique and the App.

Then download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare app – for iOS. You’re already possibly paying $300+/hour to hire an aeroplane: You’ll recover the cost of the app, in just ONE LESS-NEEDED CIRCUIT. Moreover, you’ll have an invaluable reference tool, throughout your entire life in aviation.

Download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare App for iOS devices now.

 

We invite you, also, to review our new, FREE companion app,

offering a convenient way of staying abreast of our latest blogs.

 

Download the Jacobson Flare NEWS App for iOS devices now.

Re-think landing technique conventions

“But we’ve always done it this way”: Here’s why this excuse is wearing thin when it comes to landing technique:

We don’t start aero engines as we did, back in 1918. Everything in aviation has progressed. So why are we still using the same approach to landing

EVERYTHING in aviation has progressed since 1918, except for one thing: training technique for the manual landing flare manoeuvre. It’s still taught by trial and error.

As a result, many pilots are underconfident in their landings and those who are confident still cannot describe HOW they land. “You just get the hang of it!”, “Cross my fingers” or “Stuffed if I know!” are common responses pilots give when questioned on how they land. I have never accepted these as valid. Do you?

The reason for this lack of progress seems to come down to just one phrase: “WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IT THIS WAY!” is the most dangerous phrase in any language.

‘Circuits and bumps’: It doesn’t have to be this way.

By 1987, nearly 30 years ago, I had developed and published the world’s first and only universal, quantifiable and consistent approach and landing training technique – a simple and practical solution to a problem whose existence continues to be ignored or fails to be understood or acknowledged by many in the aviation industry. It is well proven.

Unfortunately, even the Cirrus Landing Standardisation Course, from a modern and very innovative company, accepts the status quo and fails to offer any fresh enlightenment on conventional landing technique and what has been taught historically.

Conventional landing technique vs The Jacobson Flare

Briefly, conventional techniques require a critical, visual estimation of vertical height to commence the flare. This estimation is subject to many errors and these vertical errors compound 20 times one way, or the other, longitudinally, on the runway.

The Jacobson Flare, on the other hand, utilises the surface of the airstrip (grass or gravel) or the centreline of a sealed runway to take advantage of a simple visual fix for the flare point. This creates a flare point which is visible (instead of a guess), tolerant of error (any longitudinal error diminishes 20 times, vertically) and consistent in its results.

To land an airplane consistently well, a pilot must be able to understand, explain and reproduce the answers to these 5 key questions:

Where to aim?
How to aim?
When to flare?
How much to flare?
How fast to flare? (i.e., the flare rate)

In my 50 years of professional aviation, I haven’t yet seen a flight training manual or textbook that answers even ONE of these questions. The Jacobson Flare answers all FIVE with ‘SIMPLE, UNASSAILABLE, AERODYNAMIC LOGIC’.

The technique is easily transferred to, and has been proven by many pilots on, a wide range of aircraft types, from sailplanes to the A380.

Perhaps it’s time to ask your flight instructor, training manager or chief pilot about the Jacobson Flare. Have they heard of it? Have they tried to understand it? If so, do they use it? If not, why not?

The many instructors who understand the problems of landing training have no trouble embracing the Jacobson Flare themselves and introducing it to their students at any level.

If your instructor claims that the Jacobson Flare “doesn’t work”, or it’s “unnecessary”, then he or she does not understand the technique or its many benefits, or how to apply it. It’s that simple.

Interestingly, people who do not fly understand the concept immediately. Many of those who do are ‘conditioned’ and are blind to anything different.

A strong case for change within the aviation industry

The sole basis of my life’s work on this landing technique project has been consistent: to IMPROVE FLIGHT SAFETY. However, you’ll also find that it’s a sure path to simply better landings, too.

I am often asked why I thought it necessary to ‘bother’ with trying to turn the landing into a science when most pilots have been indoctrinated to believe it to be an art.

For a start, I regard the landing as a SKILL, not a science. But to explore this a little more, I was drawn to looking at how the rest of the flight training syllabus has been taught, historically.

Head and heart-based learning

 There is a clear distinction between head and heart-based learning processes.

It is well understood that training is generally based on head-based learning, however there is a stand-out exception.

Since the earliest days of aviation, head-based or technically definable training processes have been applied to just about all flight training sequences, but not the landing manoeuvre.

Change as a learning process

Consider the following (and I am indebted to the School for Social Entrepreneurs Australia for the succinct ‘Change as a Learning Process’, referenced from their ‘INTRODUCTION TO ACTIVE LEARNING’ participant workbook (page 3, v.2.0 2015)):

The landing as a learning process

It is fascinating to note how the most precise manoeuvre that most pilots have to master, has been relegated to esoteric expressions such as, “about here”, “about now”, and getting the “hang” or the “sight picture” or the “feel” of it. Mislandings are the butt of derision and ridicule.

That is why the Jacobson Flare was developed  and why I’ve produced an App for iPad. Without a technically factual explanation, pilots have had no hope of predictable, consistent and universally quantifiable landings. The proven and potential cost savings in training time and competency at all levels, wear and tear on pilot and machine and airport runway occupancy times are immense.

 Embracing change

A steadily growing number of pilots – from students to A380 Captains – are fans of The Jacobson Flare.

 Isn’t it about time for the aviation industry to re-consider the statement, “We’ve always done it this way”?

Are you satisfied with conventional landing technique?

Or are you ready to question conventional landing technique?

 

“Handing over – ”

What will you do about this anomaly?

PS: If you liked this article: Please share – especially with your flight instructor, CFI, training manager, flight examiner and chief pilot, or any pilot you may know.

 

Wishing you many safe landings

 

Captain David M Jacobson FRAeS MAP

 

Would you care to experience that unsurpassed sense of accomplishment, derived from executing consistently beautiful landings, more often?

For starters, Download the FREE Jacobson Flare LITE, our no fuss/no frills introduction. Here we demonstrate, step by step, the application of the Jacobson Flare on a typical grass airstrip at Porepunkah, YPOK.

 

We invite you to browse the consistently positive comments on our Testimonials page. Many pilots, of all levels of experience, have downloaded our Apps. Read about their own experiences with the Jacobson Flare technique and the App.

Then download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare app – for iOS. You’re already possibly paying $300+/hour to hire an aeroplane: You’ll recover the cost of the app, in just ONE LESS-NEEDED CIRCUIT. Moreover, you’ll have an invaluable reference tool, throughout your entire life in aviation.

Download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare App for iOS devices now.

 

We invite you, also, to review our new, FREE companion app,

offering a convenient way of staying abreast of our latest blogs.

 

Download the Jacobson Flare NEWS App for iOS devices now.