captain-david-jacobson

The concept is the same … The execution is perfectly different.

Someone once said, “The basic idea in landing is to aim at the earth … and just miss!

Now, that is not quite as silly as it sounds: although it does require some qualification.

All pilots understand the concept of landing an airplane. It’s the understanding of all of the elements involved in producing the consistent execution that was missing – until 1987.

So, what are the missing elements? Let’s list a few:

  • There is a confusion on how to fly a consistent final approach profile, depending whether or not variable power/thrust is available. If it’s not, then pitch (with the elevators) to control airspeed – there’s no choice. But: If it is variable – (about 99.999% of the time) – then pitch to hold your aim point and use power/thrust to control airspeed.
  • Then, there is the gross misunderstanding of the final approach path gradient – it’s actually a very ‘flat’ 1:20. This means that  any error made in the ‘educated perception’ of flare height, i.e., guesswork, is compounded one way or another along the runway, by 20 times that vertical error. (If you don’t believe this, then check the profile diagram in any textbook or manual on landings: You’ll find the angle depicted as 25-30º, rather than the correct 3º.)
  • A mis-assumption that the flare can only be initiated by the above-mentioned ‘guesswork’. In fact, there is an alternative universal and quantifiable solution to hand.
  • A misunderstanding, fed by generations, that ‘feel’, developing judgment, repetition and, ultimately experience (and recent experience), are the sole arbiters involved in ‘getting the hang’ of landing an airplane. They are NOT.
  • Finally, the nonsensical advice to ‘Forget all you applied to your last airplane … this one’s different’. Sure, the responsiveness and feel of different types does vary – but that’s ignoring, totally, the common factor to all landings: the pilot’s eye path to the correct aim point – for the airplane type. Once that path is defined, other great things can happen and that previous experience is, of course, valuable.

 

May I ask?

  • Are you content flying circuit after circuit, waiting ‘til you get the hang of landing? You may wait forever – and many promising student pilots have been discouraged, or failed, or have hurt their airplanes and, sometimes, themselves.
  • Can you explain to your mother HOW you land your airplane (without the nonsensical cliches, that we’ve all heard)?
  • Do you enjoy laughing at your landings, more than your flight instructor does?

 

If  any (or all) of your responses were NO, then here are 5 more questions to consider:

  1. What aim point do your use for each airplane you fly?
  2. How do you control both the final approach flight path angle and the airspeed? What controls what?
  3. How do you assess when to commence the flare manoeuvre?
  4. How much do you flare? And
  5. How do you assess how fast to flare, i.e., the flare rate?

 

The answers to these questions are explained, comprehensively, in the Jacobson Flare App. To the best of our knowledge – over the last 60 years – yes, 60, not one of them, let alone all 5, have ever been quantified and developed into a universal, consistent approach and landing training technique and published anywhere else.

 

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 pdf , 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 ESSENTIAL 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 Jacobson Flare ESSENTIAL 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.

Jacobson Flare Android apps revoked

The Jacobson Flare regrets: Android apps revoked from Google Play

There is no easy way to say this

Regretfully, the Android editions of the Jacobson Flare App and Jacobson Flare NEWS App have been revoked and decommissioned. Henceforth, they are no longer be available for new purchases from Google Play.

In the beginning

In the first place, when the Jacobson Flare for iOS was launched in June 2014, an Android edition was simply not an option for us. The iPad was already leading the field in  aviation applications.

From a range of class-leading apps like the Jacobson Flare, the iPad evolved to become integrated, universally, on flight decks. Electronic flight bags (EFBs) and flight deck libraries are now standard.

Over the years we had a modest number of requests for an Android edition and this became possible around 2020-21. The Jacobson Flare came to rely on the integrity and flexibility of the PressPad Magz and News platforms. Their professionalism and pro-active communication skills have been a joy to behold and the results speak for themselves.

Consequently, we produced and shall continue to produce the Jacobson Flare App V2.0 for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, on Apple iOS and later OS devices.

We launched the Jacobson Flare App for Android V1.0 in 2020. However, this edition has not met its promised expectations. Ultimately, it is no longer self-sustaining or viable and, reluctantly, has been revoked. There was no alternative.

For Existing Android Subscribers

As was previously stated, the iOS editions will, of course, remain available.

However, existing Android subscribers of the complete Jacobson Flare App should still be able to access their downloaded content. Remember, though, you need the internet to access the 6 JF videos and the 5 JF calculators.

Furthermore, the Jacobson News App articles may always be viewed at www.jacobsonflare.com/blogs . (That’s where they were sourced.)

We shall help you resolve any issues, please do contact us at www.jacobsonflare.com/contacts.

 

Wishing you many safe landings

 

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 pdf , 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 ESSENTIAL 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 Jacobson Flare ESSENTIAL 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.

 

How to land a plane.. Our favourite FAQs #4 Let’s settle some misconceptions, right now.

Let’s settle some misconceptions

Some unenlightened people believe David developed a mathematically based theory that he’s attempted to prove in practice. They could not be more mistaken! Here, he responds to that idea:

The truth is actually the converse: For 20 years, I observed and studied landings. Then I explained those observations, using unassailable, yet simple mathematical principles. The maths are necessary to validate the technique, and to produce a couple of simple formulas to make ‘The Jacobson Flare’ predictable and useable on our ‘next’ airplane. I haven’t invented anything; I’ve just made a couple of connections.”

 

No parlour trick

“The Jacobson Flare is not a parlour trick. It doesn’t involve a deck of cards or a pact with the devil. 

It’s my considered opinion that pilots who learn to apply Jacobson’s techniques can make consistently good landings, provided they know how to configure their aircraft and fly a stable approach at the appropriate airspeed.’ 

‘I’m excited to have a cool, new tool in my teaching toolbox. I can’t shake this feeling of a kid in a candy store.” 

– John Ewing, Flight Instructor, California, USA

“If this was any good, it would have been developed by someone, years ago!” is a lame and unenlightened alternate response. “But we’ve always done it THIS way”, is another. If similar attitudes had prevailed through the rest of aviation, we would not have progressed beyond spruce, wire and fabric structures, unreliable power plants and navigating by DR; we would not have weather radar, GPS, GPWS or TCAS.

The truth is it was developed over 30 years ago by Captain David Jacobson, a career flight instructor and airline pilot. Since the original Jacobson Flare Paper, ‘Where to Flare‘ was published in 1987, the multifarious responses by pilots have been insightful, to say the least.

Many pilots have been open-minded, self-aware and honest enough to realise that conventional landing training methods have been inadequate, at the very least. The most common and insightful observation, by a great many pilots celebrating that ‘Eureka’ moment when they execute another consistently sound landing by applying the Jacobson Flare, is: “This probably what we’ve all been trying to achieve, without realising!”

These more enlightened pilots understand that the best that generations of flight instructors and flight training organisations have been able to manage is to attempt to describe what they, themselves, do and this loose collection of opinions has been passed down, as fact. This explains why every flight instructor has a different explanation, none of which really explain ‘how‘ to land an airplane. Trial and error is not good enough, when the rest of aviation has grown from the days of World War One.

At best, all conventional landing methods have revolved around opinions, myths and legends that have well and truly passed their use-by dates. They lean heavily on judgment, perception, false information, experience, repetition and an educated guess of vertical height above the landing surface – none of which can be taught. They are inconsistent and unreliable. Competence comes at some indeterminate time, for each individual pilot and is fallible in differing circumstances. From the dawn of aviation until 1987 there was no definitive, universal landing technique and, even more puzzling, little recognition of the need for one.

“We’ve always done it this way!”

The Law of  Primacy in the discipline of education, refers to the way that many people tend to believe implicitly what they are first taught, creating unshakeable views about any given subject. This very much includes any attempt to discuss a different viewpoint on landing training, which the majority of pilots regard as an ‘art‘.

It has been noted by the author, often during the past 35 years, that when a pilot is presented with an alternative to conventional ideas on landing training, defence mechanisms kick in and any new idea can be regarded as a personal challenge to their ego. Instead of listening, or reading, or watching and then considering, many pilots tend to become quite defensive, immediately throwing up as many reasons as they can think of, as to why the Jacobson Flare “cannot work“. They will argue – from a position of total ignorance in relation to the principles and advantages of the Jacobson Flare – about the wide number of variables that certainly do affect the outcome of all landings (all of which and more are, in fact, embraced and diminished by the sound principles behind this innovative technique. They are not to know yet that is does work and has always worked, ever since the sound mathematical principles used to explain David’s 1965 inspiration were applied.

So, what’s so different about the Jacobson Flare?

Essentially, the Jacobson Flare uses a logical, geometric visual ‘framework’ to guide the pilot through the entire manoeuvre. Since the development of The Jacobson Flare from 1985, pilots are presented with a fully-defined visual eye path, specified by the airplane type – making the landing safe, sure, simple and universal.

Accounting for all – even self-compensating for many – of the variable parameters that distract the attention of pilots away from the 5 essential elements of all landings:Where to aim; How to aim; When to flare; How much to flare; and How fast to flare, the Jacobson Flare explains landings as never before.

Simply put: Consistently sound landings – in the right place – are obtained through ‘flying’ a constant-angle final approach to a suitable initial aim point, commencing the flare at an equally-suitable pre-determined visual fix and then executing a 4-second flare through to a new, secondary aim point. That’s it. The framework confirms to the pilot exactly what is happening, at every stage dispelling the myths that ‘trial and error‘, ‘developing a mental picture‘ and ‘feel‘ are the only ways to master the landing.

Flown initially at a constant angle, the eye path translates to the classic exponential flare curve that generations of pilots have attempted to execute by judgment alone. The flare is initiated from a visual fix, derived from the cockpit lower visual cut-off angle and the flight path angle, offering a precise and visible model for both student and instructor.

The airplane type/size determines the exact positions of aim points 1 and 2 and the flare initiation point and, on a normal powered approach, is flown using a PATH descent – using the elevators to aim the pilots eye and power/thrust to control airspeed. The technique is equally applicable and adaptable to both light and heavy airplanes, from sailplanes to A380s.

(For those pilots taught that airspeed is controlled with the elevators and rate of descent is controlled with the throttle, the use of elevators to control airspeed, on final approach is more correctly applied to the Non-Normal cases when power/thrust is fixed – or failed – such as in a forced landing. For further explanation, please see FAQ #5, in the FAQs tab.)

The flare fix determines a longitudinal flare point on the runway centreline (based on the correct conventional flare height) while gradually reducing power/thrust back to idle). The concept of using a longitudinal flare point rather than flare height has two great advantages:

  1.  The flare point is visible and therefore easily identified and able to be repeated, consistently; and
  2.  Any longitudinal error made in mis-identifying the longitudinal flare point DIMINISHES 20 times, compared with the fact that any error in mis-identifying a conventional vertical flare ‘height’ COMPOUNDS 20 times. This is due to the fact that the standard approach path angle is – approximately a 1:20 gradient. Overlooked by the entire flight training industry for 100 years, this angle is routinely misrepresented in text books and manuals as approximately 25-30º and this has masked its significance.  Triangles have 3 sides and only 2 were ever utilised. The third (adjacent) side is fully visible as the runway centreline and, on sealed and painted runways, is effectively a calibrated ruler.  The 1:20 tolerance, afforded by utilising a longitudinal flare point, has the great advantage of being so tolerant of error that the technique can be equally applied on unsealed airstrips of grass or gravel, where an estimation of runway segment distance is required.

The Jacobson Flare is comprehensive yet practical, simple to master and extremely effective. Since 1985, it has been adopted in 65 nations by thousands of civil and military pilots of various ages, abilities and experience, in airplane types ranging from sailplanes and single-engine light airplanes to large jet transports. The improvement in confidence, competence and progress of pilots – at all levels – is not only breathtaking: It’s measurable.

The Jacobson Flare addresses obvious differences between airplanes but embraces their similarities. It delivers a basic system of flight training that may be adapted as necessary to meet specific requirements. Its universal application is long overdue and the App presents the Jacobson Flare clearly and comprehensively as never before.

 

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.

How to land a Plane with the Jacobson Flare

Re-introducing the Jacobson Flare landing training technique

Re-introducing the Jacobson Flare landing training technique

The Problem

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. Flight training schools still attempt to teach outdated methods which date directly to World War 1 (1914-18).

The Solution

In order to land any airplane consistently well, pilots must know the answers to five important, yet simple questions, relating to their aeroplane type:

  1. Where to aim?
  2. How to aim?
  3. When to flare?
  4. How much to flare?
  5. How fast to flare? (That is, the flare rate)

Let me pose this questions:

Have you ever seen a flight training manual or article, or a briefing offer a factual and complete answer to even ONE of these questions, let alone ALL FIVE?

Let us (re-) introduce you to the Jacobson Flare – the world’s first and only universal, quantifiable and consistently reliable approach and landing flare training technique.

While learning to fly at YMMB Moorabbin, Victoria, in 1965, at the age of 17 years, I regarded what I was taught then, in respect of HOW to land an airplane, as inadequate, to say the least. That view was only reinforced as my career in Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA) progressed from 1970, becoming Australian Airlines Ltd from 1987 and on to Qantas Airways Ltd following the merger in 1992 and the subject of landing training remains the ‘elephant in the room’, to this day. The silence on the subject of HOW to land, in flight training manuals from any source, is deafening.

Key considerations have been overlooked or ignored:

  1. Many flight training schools still teach conflicting flight path control philosophies, ignoring the key requirements mandated by whether or not variable engine power (propellor aircraft) or thrust (jet aircraft) is available. This can cause coordination issues, affecting passenger comfort, flight path stability, inconsistent landing quality and, ultimately, serious flight safety issues.
  1. The conventional concept of using flare height is flawed mathematically because, on a standard 3º final approach path, whether visually- or instrument-based, any vertical error, whether high or low, compounds x 20 times as a longitudinal error. The touchdown point ends up being deeper or shorter, respectively, along the runway. This applies equally to the manual and auto-flare manoeuvre, based on radio altimeters and GPWS calls. The standard 3º path angle is generally exaggerated in instructional materials’ approach profile diagrams, thus masking this critical issue. Check for yourself, with a protractor: it will measure approximately 25-30º – far greater than 3º.
  1. The vertical dimension of flare height is invisible to the pilot; it’s an educated, yet unreliable guess of pilot eye height above the runway and it varies with every different aircraft. Even if flying just one airplane type regularly, this guess is inconsistent. A great many variables, summarized as aircraft, environmental (both airport- and weather-related) and pilot performance, apply.
  1. Conventional landing training is almost entirely based on the flawed assumption that it can only be mastered by educated guesswork, backed up by nothing better than repetition and practice, to develop judgment and perception, ‘feel’ and ‘the look’ – NONE of which can be taught.

During that early training time from 1965, I had an idea, inspired by the celebrated 1943 RAF 617 Sqn ‘Dambusters’ application of simple triangulation for their bombsights and belly-mounted twin spotlights which fixed their height at 18m over water, at night.

Clearly, I had insufficient flying experience back then to act on that inspiration. Much later, as an experienced flight instructor and DC-9-30 training captain with Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA), I borrowed the Dambusters’ simple triangulation – used to great effect – and since 1985 have applied it to the development of a longitudinal flare point based on a visual fix, rather than the conventional and mathematically flawed, inconsistent guess of a vertical flare height.

Added to other key elements, this longitudinal flare point quickly became the basis of the World’s first and only universal, quantifiable and unassailable approach and landing training technique, in a Paper I wrote and presented for the 1987 Australian Aviation Symposium.

I have applied and taught this technique ever since 1985, for 18,000 of my 24,000 total hours’ flight experience, for many GA pilots and for all 50 of my airline first officer and command trainees.

Put simply, it is well proven – for thousands of pilots, in over 70 countries.

By invitation, I presented the Jacobson Flare at the complete series of 1997 Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Flight Safety Seminars around Australia. The response by the pilots present at each venue was overwhelming; they wanted these answers which, to my knowledge, are not available from any other source.

The Jacobson Flare App is available for iOS for the average cost of flying just one single circuit in a typical light training aircraft. Compared with the cost of repetitive circuit training, the price is negligible: the advantages priceless. The cost is recouped in flying just one less necessary circuit!

The App answers all FIVE of the questions featured above and many more. It is essentially a 350-page e-manual, fully illustratedand explained with detailed text, and 6 video clips. It also includes a comprehensive Reference Section, with 5 vital, inter-active calculators that will serve pilots through an entire career.

Flight safety is greatly enhanced and there are huge savings to be made for pilots, owners and operators, through significant time and cost savings in

  • Learning the technique ONCE and then applying it to successive aeroplane conversions, through an entire career;
  • Greatly reduced stress on students and their instructors;
  • Reduced general wear and tear on aircraft undercarriage, wheels, tyres and brakes;
  • Huge reduction in serious damage to aircraft undercarriage, propellers and airframe extremities, caused by poor technique or runway overruns;
  • Greatly increased safety through reduced injuries and fatalities;
  • Reduced runway occupancy times, for operators and for

You are invited to check out the testimonial comments from many experienced pilots, at https://www.jacobsonflare.com/testimonials/and much further information is available on www.jacobsonflare.com .

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 Training College training syllabus.

This has been a career-long campaign and I am now seeking your support to bring it to the attention of your flight training working group, with whom I should be pleased to work closely: to share my extensive experience in researching, developing, proving and teaching the Jacobson Flare – in GA and airline aircraft types ranging from sailplanes to the A380.

I refer you also to this independent Paper on Landing Flare Performance, published by the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.

Before replying, please visit www.jacobsonflare.com and its various tabs. I commend The Jacobson Flare LITE.pdf as the best introduction yet to this subject.

Finally, here is a response from former RAAF Air Commodore John Chesterfield ; one from former Head of Standards and Testing Barry Carpenter; and one from prominent aviation theory school Head, Bob Tait.

I look forward to yours.

With kind regards,

Captain David M Jacobson FRAeS MAP

B737 Captain MEL (Retired Qantas Airways Ltd Feb 2010)

+61 419 346 336

david.jacobson@jacobsonflare.com

 

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.

How to land a plane - it's a fair question

How to land a plane.. Our favourite FAQs.. #5 What controls what, on final approach?

We share some valuable insight to a perennial, yet vital question: One which is often explained, poorly.

FAQ #5 ‘I was taught that airspeed is controlled with the elevators and rate of descent is controlled with the throttle. Is this not correct?’

The concept of ‘elevators controlling path angle and power/thrust controlling airspeed’ for normal, powered approaches is not new. The use of the primary effects of the flight controls is essential in achieving a stable approach path on visual and instrument approaches in ANY airplane and has been widely and wisely utilised for decades, by civil and military aviators.

Using the secondary effects of the flight controls, i.e., ‘elevators controlling airspeed’, is certainly valid when gliding, or on a forced landing caused by partial or total loss of engine power or thrust; and is clearly unavoidable when climbing. These are all cases when power/thrust is at a fixed setting, necessarily.

The dubious concept of ‘power/thrust facilitating rate of descent on a normal, powered approach is very clumsy and unintuitive, especially for student pilots, in light airplanes and is totally ineffective on larger/faster airplanes.

The rate of descent on final approach is a function of just two variable factors: flight path angle and groundspeed. Certainly, the variation of power/thrust can facilitate a change in path angle, at a given indicated airspeed, but it does not directly control rate of descent. In any case, it is a very second-hand way of flying an approach and offers no stability. A roller coaster flight path is the inevitable result, leading to unstable approaches. This is one of several major reasons for inconsistent and poor quality landings.

Another critical issue is to consider the two common errors that student pilots (and licensed ones, also) who have been taught this inaccurate method, make frequently:

1. High and fast, on final approach; and/or
2. Low and slow. In each case, the initial response, for a pilot trained to think that the elevators control airspeed will COMPOUND both problems.

The pilot who is HIGH will pitch UP, making things worse and the pilot who is LOW will pitch DOWN – the LAST things the pilot should be doing, to resolve each error! A third major issue is that the roller coaster flight path ensures that the threshold crossing height of the aircraft will be totally inconsistent, making landing judgment and touchdown points quite haphazard.

As if all that is not enough of a problem, the situation worsens at a most critical phase: the flare point. A pilot, pitching the aeroplane with the elevators to control AIRSPEED, now needs to transfer the purpose of the elevators to pitch the aircraft to control the FLIGHT PATH ANGLE. What a ridiculous moment to completely redefine the flight path control philosophy! It defies all logic.

A further point (apart from greatly improved passenger comfort) is that by flying a stable approach with a more-or-less constant body angle, the lowest angle we can see over the nose of the airplane is also more-or-less constant. This fact is crucial in facilitating the Jacobson Flare’s unique visual fix for the initiation of the flare itself – inspired by the 1943 RAF 617 Sqn ‘Dambusters’ – and is responsible for the automatic self-correction of the pre-calculated flare fix for variations in landing flap settings, approach path angles, runway slopes and discounting the height illusions caused by varying runway widths.

But this is just contrary to the way VFR training is frequently taught. I went through several instrument instructors, and never found one who could adequately explain why we (CFIs) teach aircraft control differently to VFR and IFR students. Your explanation was right on, and satisfied my thirst for that understanding with an easily to implement and repeatable solution.” (Mark Santacroce, USA)

Mark was dead right – that aspect has long bemused me, also. Why teach the correct method when IFR, and the flawed ‘speed descent’ method when VFR? After all, the airplane doesn’t know the difference between IFR and VFR! But it does know the difference between a powered and a glide approach And that is the arbiter.

However, this aspect is only a part of the ‘How to aim?‘ second step in using the Jacobson Flare. All five steps must be applied for this comprehensive technique to be applied consistently well.

The full discussion on this and many other related topics may be found in The Jacobson Flare App for iOS, available on the App Store .

 

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.