captain-david-jacobson

The Jacobson Flare App highlights several critical issues with conventional flight training practices, particularly concerning landing techniques.  These practices, widely accepted since 1918, have led to inconsistent and poor-quality landings; these primarily due to flawed methodologies and non-standardised training approaches.

Airspeed and Flight path control

One of the primary issues discussed is the reliance on elevators to control airspeed. This is only valid when power or thrust is fixed or entirely lost.  This method becomes ineffective for heavier and faster airplanes; often resulting in a roller coaster flight path, unstable approaches, and passenger discomfort.  Such instability greatly contributes to inconsistent landings, as pilots struggle to maintain a steady approach path angle and threshold crossing height.

Inconsistent training

Furthermore, the Jacobson Flare App critiques the inconsistency in training methods. Instructors may teach different techniques for visual and instrument approaches; despite the control requirements being the same for both.  This lack of standardisation confuses students and undermines their ability to execute proper landings.

Inconsistent Flare Initiation Height

The Jacobson Flare App also addresses the challenges pilots face during the flare phase of landing.  Conventionally, pilots rely on subjective judgment, perception, experimentation and experience to determine the flare height; which is invisible to the pilot.  This reliance on personal judgment leads to variability in landing quality, as these skills develop differently for each pilot and are influenced by external factors such as aircraft type and environmental conditions.  The inconsistency in flare height judgment results in unpredictable threshold crossing heights and haphazard landing outcomes.

Transitioning Elevator use 

Another critical issue is the transition in control philosophy during the flare phase.  Pilots trained to use elevators to control airspeed must suddenly then switch to the normal and necessary use of elevators to control the flight path angle during the flare.  This abrupt transition is illogical and adds unnecessary complexity during a critical phase of flight.

Historically Overlooked: the Twenty-fold Mathematical Error

Additionally, the standard approach angle of 3 degrees exacerbates vertical errors in height judgment, magnifying them twenty-fold along the runway.  This compounding effect further contributes to inconsistent touchdown positions and landing quality.

Common Errors

The Jacobson Flare App also highlights common errors made by student and licensed pilots who have been taught the conventional method. Pilots who are high and fast on final approach often pitch up, worsening the situation; while those who are low and slow pitch down, which is counterproductive, to say the least!  These responses stem from the misguided priority of controlling airspeed with elevators on a normal, powered approach, leading to compounded problems during landing.

Conventional Wisdom

The overarching critique of conventional practices is their failure to provide a standardised, logical, and adaptable approach to landing training.  The Jacobson Flare App argues that it is illogical to teach different techniques for visual flight rules (VFR) and instrument flight rules (IFR) students, as the airplane itself does not differentiate between these modes of operation.  Instead, the focus should be on the distinction between powered and glide approaches, which is the true determinant of control requirements.

Even official flight instructor manuals state that, “Many students have difficulty in mastering the approach and landing. This is a matter of judgement and there is no simple way of teaching judgement to those to whom it does not come easily.” In other words, it’s all based on guesswork and you’re on your own.

In Conclusion

The Jacobson Flare App emphasises the need for a simple alternative to the flawed conventional practices.  By addressing the inconsistencies in training methods, eliminating reliance on subjective judgment during the flare phase, and adopting a logical and standardised approach to flight path control, pilots can achieve more consistent and predictable landings.

This shift in training philosophy is essential for improving the quality and safety of landings across all types of aircraft and flight conditions.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of 2, coming shortly: ‘Are you frustrated, struggling towards first solo You needn’t be – there is a solution.’

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.

One of the most favourite of the many comments made to me has been:

“If the Jacobson Flare was any good, it would have been invented years ago!”

Well, as a matter of fact, it was! If you are interested, here is the story:

70 years ago – A true and intriguing tale

Long before his earliest days of flying, David was intrigued by the celebrated 1955 film, The Dambusters.
RAF 617 Squadron Lancaster bombers breached the walls of the Mohne and Eder Dams in Western Germany, in May 1943.

This operation applied unique ‘bouncing bombs’ which skipped along the reservoir’s surface, like a stone. For these to be effective, the pilots needed a way to satisfy the precise and pre-determined bomb release height. This above still dark water and at night. The barometric altimeters of the day lacked sufficient accuracy, so two spotlights were mounted under each aircraft fuselage. Accordingly, at the correct height, their light beams would converge on the water’s surface. In other words, height was determined by simple triangulation. The crude bombsight also used this triangulation principle, applied towards the dam walls to confirm a longitudinal bomb release point.

60 years ago – An inspiration

During 1965, while learning to fly at 18 years of age, that highly effective use of triangulation became David’s inspiration. On closer scrutiny of the ‘Dambusters’ methods, David realised that an accurate flare fix for landing could be derived. It applied triangulation between a pilot’s eye path and a supplementary, pre-calculated longitudinal point on the runway centre-line, positioned short of the aim point. But that’s as far as it went, at that time.

40 years ago – An inspiration, revisited

Much later, in 1985, David was well-armed with 20 years’ experience on both large and small aircraft. On Saturday 13 April 1985, David and a small group of pilots, including RAAF QFIs (Qualified Flight Instructors), a private pilot and a student pilot were gathered around a white board in a briefing room at RAAF Point Cook Flying Club. Unable to fly, due to heavy rain and armed with mugs of steaming coffee, they were discussing why landings were seemingly so difficult for pilots to learn – in the first place, and on subsequent conversions – and so difficult for their instructors to teach, efficiently.

The consensus was that there had never been a consistent and universal technique that was based on anything better than an instructor’s personal opinion, their own experience and what their instructors passed down. That probably should not have been a surprise.

The Law of Primacy, well understood in educational circles, states clearly that we tend to believe, implicitly, what we are first taught on any given subject, creating almost unshakeable views. (This has been and remains the greatest hurdle: Ideas, anyone?)

The discussion that day revived David’s original inspiration from the ‘Dambusters’ triangulation idea and using this as his working concept, he began to research and develop a new approach and landing flare technique. Some ideas took shape and, later that same afternoon, when the rain stopped, together with one of the RAAF instructors, Flt Lt Barry Carpenter and Lindsay McKee PPL, David took off in Lindsay’s Beechcraft 23 Musketeer VH-DLW, to conduct some initial trials to test these first ideas.

Let’s go flying

Each pilot took turns at executing a normal landing, using a consistent aim point, namely, the upwind end of the 500ft fixed distance runway marks, at 600ft from the threshold and then, as usual, guessing when (i.e., the right height) to commence the flare. With David remaining in the right hand seat, for each landing, they all completed their first landings, while David noted the point on the runway just being ‘eclipsed’ by the airplane structure (forward edge of the glare shield, where it meets the base of the windscreen), when each pilot commenced his flare. Interestingly, this point was closely consistent for each pilot: the ‘start’ or downwind end of the same 500 ft mark. This point is 100ft short of the 600ft aim point being used.

Then they each completed another circuit and landing, while still originally aiming at the ‘top’ of that mark (600ft), but this time using the ‘bottom’ of that mark (500ft) as a flare initiation ‘cut-off’ point. That first experiment was a success – for each pilot.

Some ‘scaled up’ tests were trialed in TAA’s DC-9-30 flight simulator, shortly after and they too were immediately successful.

Here’s a schematic of the Jacobson Flare fix for the B737: Aim point 1 is located at 1000ft from the threshold and the flare cut-off point at 500ft.

After some initial research and much enthusiasm and support from CASA Examiner of Airmen Peter Bryant, who renewed David’s Grade One Flight Instructor rating on the strength of this emerging training technique, he was encouraged to publish a paper entitled ‘Where to Flare’ for the conference proceedings of the 1987 ‘Australian Aviation Symposium — Innovate or Enervate’ in Canberra. This technique later became known as The Jacobson Flare.

The rest, as they say, is history and the Jacobson Flare is now 40 years old. The author is a little older!

And the Jacobson Flare App has sold thousands of copies in 80 nations.

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.

This testimonial message was received recently: Does it resonate with you, too? 

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.