Author: David Jacobson

35th Anniversary of the First Publication of the Jacobson Flare

24.10.2022 , captain-david-jacobson

35th Anniversary of the First Publication of the Jacobson Flare

The original Paper, ‘Where to Flare‘, written and presented by Captain David M Jacobson for the 1987 Australian Aviation Symposium, Canberra ACT, Australia, developed to become The Jacobson Flare.

18-20 November 2022 marks the 35th anniversary of the publication of the original Paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An abridged version of this paper appeared shortly after, in the Australian Department of Transport’s Aviation Safety Digest No 134 Spring 1987 edition.

 

For over 100 years aviators have, for the most part, known WHAT we are trying to achieve when landing an aeroplane; it’s the HOW that has been so elusive.

My long-held view is that the visual approach and landing manoeuvre is the worst taught and most neglected topic in the entire flight training syllabus, both civil and military because, until 1987, there had never been a universal, quantifiable and consistently reliable approach and landing training technique. A loose collection of myths and misinformation, opinions and guesswork do not qualify.

37 years ago, I developed a solution. However, the industry is yet to realise that it has a problem. The pathetic fallback, ‘We’ve always done it, this way’, is just not good enough, anymore.

If you agree, contact me and let us start a conversation on how you can introduce the Jacobson Flare to your Flight School or College training syllabus.

Please visit www.jacobsonflare.com and its various tabs. I commend The Jacobson Flare LITE.pdf as the best introduction yet for those new to this subject.
Here is a response from a former RAAF Air Commodore. I look forward to yours.

 

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.

The Jacobson Flare LITE - How to land a plane explained.

THE New and Free Jacobson Flare Lite

01.07.2022 , news

For some time, we’ve been asked to produce a NEW and FREE Jacobson Flare LITE: a simplified version, free of diagrams and the geometry and trigonometry that underpins the Jacobson Flare. We understand that there are some who feel that they wouldn’t understand a formal approach and landing technique, even though based on some very basic mathematics.

A picture is always better than a thousand words, but a real picture is unassailable. We have a real approach and landing video, viewed from the cockpit.

This downloadable, no-frills PDF presentation presents the practical application of the Jacobson Flare at YPOK Porepunkah, a grass-surfaced country airstrip at the foot of Mount Buffalo, in NE Victoria, Australia. It’s based on a video from the Jacobson Flare App.  The example airplane is the C172 and the images are a carefully selected group of screenshots from the video assist pilots to identify, illustrate, resolve and integrate the five key elements of the approach and landing, namely:

  1. Where to aim;
  2. How to aim;
  3. When to flare;
  4. How much to flare; and
  5. How fast to flare.

Each step is explained as simply as possible, through some brief notes, appended below each image. We suggest that you run the video through first, without any interruption, as an overview, before reviewing each of the selected screen images, in detail. While the concept of using individual pages allows reading in your own time, it is useful to re-run the video at any time, to visualise application of the notes in real-time. The more times, the better.

A fundamental aspect of the Jacobson Flare is the relationship between the pilot’s eye position in the cockpit and the position of the main landing gear of the airplane. While the subject airplane was a late model C172, the criteria used in this example at YPOK is equally applicable for a wide range of comparable 4-6 place single- and twin-engine light airplanes.

The notes that introduce the following presentation define three key locations on the airstrip for an initial aim point 1 at approximately 300ft/90m from the approach threshold; a longitudinal flare cut-off point (used to create a visual fix in place of a conventional guess of flare height), located at 200ft/60m (or 100ft/30m short of aim point 1); and an additional aim point 2, located at the upwind threshold. These have been pre-calculated for airplanes of the above description and, in this case, located by measurement. (The Jacobson Flare App content and on-board calculators cover and simplify this once-only step.)

An unsealed gravel runway would be equally adaptable to the Jacobson Flare, as there are always discernible contrasting marks suitable for selection as the Aim Point 1 and flare cut-off point, respectively. (While these distances may need to be estimated, the use of a longitudinal flare fix is 400-times more tolerant of error, compared with a conventional guess of vertical flare height, when flying a standard 3º (1:20) approach path.)

A sealed and painted runway offers a calibrated ruler that removes all guesswork. For C172 and similar types, the ‘top’ of the first centreline mark beyond the threshold ‘piano keys’ at 300ft/90m from the threshold and runway numbers is suggested as Aim Point 1. This provides approximately 10ft/3m main gear threshold clearance.

The flare cut-off point, calculated and rounded to 100ft before Aim Point 1 (the C172 previously calculated and rounded flare cut-off distance), is located at the ‘bottom’ of this centreline mark (200ft/60m from the threshold). Aim point 2 is selected, as usual, on the runway centreline (i.e., on the ground) at the upwind threshold.

For smaller 2-place airplanes, such as light sport aircraft (LSA) or airplanes like the B77, C150 or PA38, the flare cut-off point would be around 60-80 ft/18-25m short of the same aim point 1.

For all other larger types of airplanes, a greater understanding and the one-off pre-calculation of these points, for each different airplane type/size, is necessary and it for this reason that the Jacobson Flare App was developed. We strongly recommend it, for the cost of flying just one less-necessary circuit.

We invite you to download and explore the Jacobson Flare LITE version, but please understand that this LITE version cannot and does not contain the comprehensive information that resides in the Jacobson Flare App for iOS.

Note: On mobile phones and tablets, it is suggested that the Jacobson Flare LITE is opened in a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat. After the embedded video in the PDF is played, selecting ‘DONE’ should return the reader to the PDF, to enable further progress through the presentation.

 

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.

No thanks … We are too busy! Does that ring any alarm bells?

28.03.2022 , we've-always-done-it-this-way

No thanks … We are too busy! Does that ring any alarm bells? – It should.

Many might argue that our lives in general and our working lives in particular, seem busier today than ever; with more responsibilities than ever.

When you’re busy, it is a perfectly normal response to not want to be bothered by fresh thinking, on something that you thought was settled years ago.

But is it always a sensible response? Perhaps not.

When it comes to landing an airplane – of any size – how come it still comes down to an educated guess, regarding when to commence the flare, how much to flare and how fast to flare the airplane? Especially when EVERYTHING ELSE in aviation is very well defined and documented.

Why is it that flight training manuals – whether from manufacturers, aviation authorities or flight training organisations – contain little useful information on HOW to land an airplane, when those same manuals discuss ALL other topics so very well?

Perhaps the answer is because all those other topics are based on fact, whereas discussion around the landing manoeuvre has been based historically on opinion, feel, judgment, repetition and experience – NONE of which can be taught – handed on, unchallenged, for over 100 years. We all had to ‘get the hang of it‘.

Perhaps this also explains why the quality of landings, worldwide, is so inconsistent, often with sad and expensive results.

We invite you to take a few moments to check out www.jacobsonflare.com and consider the answers to these questions.

 

 

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.

NEW: TJF App Version 2.0.6 with new Appendix G: Clear to Land

23.12.2021 , captain-david-jacobson

NEW: TJF App Version 2.0.6 – with new Appendix G: Clear to Land – released 23 December 2021

In early 2021, while delivering a JF training package in Brisbane, Australia, for yet another flight training organisation – FlightScope Aviation – a highly experienced instructor asked, “Have you considered adding a new section in the App, containing the accurate phraseology and useful pointers, including the ‘patter‘, that we just applied today?”

In July, we announced we that we had decided to add a new Appendix G to the JF app, which would highlight many practical tips, together with key terms and phrases, all designed to emphasise and achieve the vital application of the Jacobson Flare in the real world.

On 23 December 2021, we released the new Version 2.0.6 of the Jacobson Flare and we’ve titled the new Appendix G – ‘Clear to Land‘ – or ‘How to Apply the Jacobson Flare in the Real World‘.

It comprises distilled insights for all pilots and flight instructors straight from the most reliable source – the originator, researcher and developer of the Jacobson Flare – Captain David Jacobson FRAeS MAP.

The content in this appendix is necessarily limited to 10 pages – it does assume a thorough comprehension of the Jacobson Flare – but it should serve to direct the reader to, and to supplement, the expanded material for each topic, contained within the JF App Treatise. It offers phrases, cautions and JF-specific flight instructor ‘patter‘, developed by the author and others – over the last 36 years – that flight instructors may find useful as they develop experience in teaching the Jacobson Flare.

It is designed to highlight the practical, real-world application of the Jacobson Flare, by attempting to engage with the reader as if side-by-side in a cockpit, somewhere.

“For we are all learners, doers and teachers”

Richard Bach (Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah – 1977)

 

 

However, this update to V2.0.6 is more than just the addition of a new appendix. We’ve tidied up some unnecessary page duplications (to optimise space), fixed some bugs and made provision for a future Index – in addition to the wide-ranging Contents pages. We plan to release that update during early-mid 2022.

So trash the old Version 2.0.5 (356 pages) and download the NEW Version 2.0.6 (now 345 pages, despite the additional content) to take full advantage of the author’s 36-years’ experience in explaining and instructing his original Jacobson Flare – the world’s first and only universal, quantifiable, reliable and unassailable approach and landing training technique for all fixed-wing pilots.

 

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.

Aim Point Comparison Calculators for True Professionals

12.12.2021 , captain-david-jacobson

Aim Point Comparison Calculators for true Professionals

Embedded within the Jacobson Flare App are 5 bespoke calculators. Two are designed to calculate the longitudinal Aim and Flare Points for both heavy and light airplanes, respectively. These provide a major component of the Jacobson Flare approach and landing technique.

However, the JF App for iOS also contains three specially-created calculators. These enable accurate comparison of the correct visual aim point for any given airplane, with the aim point defined by the geometric specification of the three most common electronic glide path systems, namely ILS, PAPI and the Australian-designed but sadly obsolescent T-VASIS.

As an example, the PAPI is a virtual point source, providing a 3° ± 12’ design eye path to just one aim point. There is no standard MEHT.

Since the PAPI is generally installed to suit the largest airplane type operating into an airport (often B747/B777), many MEHTs are of the order of 71- 75ft, with corresponding aiming points of approximately 1500ft (450m). This makes many PAPIs unsuitable for narrow-body transport jet operations, let alone executive jets, prop jets and other charter airplanes, which have aim points generally around 1000ft (300m). Some sort of correction – or compromise – is necessary; but what kind and when?

In that instant of realisation – during the approach – that the 2 aim points don’t align and confusion occurs?

Or pre-flight, with an accurate aim point calculation for each of your networks’ destination and alternate runways safely stored in your personal Aim Point Comparison database?

As an example, on a level runway, for a 3° PAPI to suit the B737/A320 visual aim point of 1000ft (300m), an MEHT of approx 50 ft would be required. (1000ft divided by 20).

Accordingly, it is sometimes impossible to satisfy the twin requirements of flying both a PAPI on-slope indication and an accurate 3° eye path to the correct aim point for the airplane type.

Another significant factor is that published MEHT data does not consider the runway slope. Downhill slopes, especially, have a profound effect on the siting of PAPI installations, in satisfying a specified MEHT. They are considerably deeper than those on level runways or, indeed, uphill-sloping runways.

The PAPI Aim Point Calculator (along with those for the ILS and T-VASIS) in this Reference section, accommodate the runway slope and other factors in their comparison with nominal visual aim points.

Cast your eyes over this example: The standard B737 visual aim point is 1000ft/300m from the approach threshold. On this runway, the MEHT is 74ft. This would place the PAPI aim point at 1513ft/461m – if the runway was level. Even this would be 513ft/156m deeper than the correct visual aim point, which is ‘King’.

However, this runway is not level – it has a downhill slope of -0.9% – and this would place the PAPI aim point at 1874ft/570m – 874ft/270m deeper than the correct visual aim point, at 1000ft/300m.

 

We commend these calculators to any and every professional civil and military pilots, even if you are not (yet) using the Jacobson Flare as your standard landing reference technique. The comparisons made available through our calculators will open your eyes – considerably – and answer every question you ever had about why your visual aim point never matched the secondary electronic slope guidance systems! Now, it can all make sense; and you can easily create your own database for future reference.

You’ll find these Aim Point calculators – and so much more – in the Jacobson Flare apps.

 

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.