captain-david-jacobson

Part 1 of this series discussed some of the issues with conventional landing training. This second part looks at what I did about improving the situation, for students and their instructors.

How it all began

The origins of the Jacobson Flare date back to 1965. When just a 17-year-old young student pilot, training at YMMB (Moorabbin, Victoria, Australia), I started questioning the traditional methods of landing an aircraft, taught by my first flight instructors.

Over 60 years later, I can still recall trying not to be a smart-ass, but being dismayed by having to rely on nothing better than trial-and-error practices. These, I learned, have been passed down, unchallenged since the end of World War I in 1918, by generations of flight instructors.

To this day, I still find it perplexing that pilots are taught what to do to land an aircraft but not how to do it, with any precision or consistency.

The Problems

Initially, I was taught to control airspeed by pitching the airplane with the elevators, while attempting to use power to control the rate of descent. While clearly necessary for a glide approach, it made no sense to me to use the secondary effects of both the elevator and throttle controls to fly the airplane, for a normal powered approach. For me, this generally led to a roller-coaster ride down final approach, with quite inconsistent landing results. Not surprising, with a pitch correction needing a power correction, followed by another pitch correction and so on. There is no stability.

The landing is the most precise manoeuvre that most pilots are ever required to execute. Yet then and later, my serious questions on ‘when to flare‘ were neither answered nor quantified. Most manuals regurgitate the old myths and misinformation.

Getting the ‘hang’ of the landing flare from a combination of guesswork, the ‘look‘, the ‘feel’, repetition, and luck has never made sense to me, whatsoever. I soloed at about 10 hours, but the initial methods that I was taught never sat well with me. They were and they remain non-intuitive and simply unintelligent.

Thankfully, a fine ex-RAF instructor, Jim Noonan, launched my CPL night flying training. In that initial process, he taught me how to aim my eyes at an appropriate aim point by pitching the airplane with the elevators and controlling airspeed with power. What a relief!

I wanted to do this, instinctively, from the start. Later, I learned that this is the technique taught by the airlines, our defence forces, and the more enlightened flying schools.

The Inspiration

My original inspiration for the Jacobson Flare came from an unlikely source, the celebrated 1956 British film ‘The Dam Busters’. The movie depicts the 1943 RAF 617 Squadron’s celebrated application of triangulation: Two precisely aimed converging spotlights and a simple, Y-shaped bomb sight resolved the problems of a low-flying attack over water, at night. As a then 9-year-old, I was enthralled.

One day in 1965, it suddenly clicked: My eye path to the aim point for the B23 Musketeer was a position line, as in navigation. A second position line, such as another one over the nose of the airplane to a point on the runway centreline, short of the aim point, would surely provide a visual fix for the flare point. This had to be better than relying on an educated guess of vertical flare height, which (again, I learned later) is flawed mathematically, to the power of +/- 20 times, along the runway, due to the shallow 3-degree path angle.

The concept of simple triangulation captured my imagination, but, of course, I had minimal flight experience back then. Certainly not enough to dream that my idea might actually work, let alone be universally adaptable to almost any airplane.

Handling the Hurdles

I was also yet to learn that, sadly, some key aviation figures, organisations, even universities are sometimes apathetic. So are airlines and airplane manufacturers. I believe that the approach and landing is the most neglected topic in the flight training syllabus, and the silence on this subject is deafening.

‘We’ve always done it this way’ or “No, thanks” are not arguments or reasons. They are simply lame excuses to avoid rational thinking.

Thankfully, I’ve succeeded in reaching thousands of pilots directly.

My professional career spanned five decades: Starting as a flight instructor in general aviation, I progressed through an exciting and  distinguished career with Trans-Australia Airlines (-TAA, later Australian Airlines -AAL). Flying various aircraft, including the F27, DC-9-30, and B727-100/-200, as a First Officer, I achieved commands later, on the F27, DC-9-30, and B737-300/-400. Following the 1992 merger of AAL with QANTAS Airways, I flew B737-300/-400/-800 aircraft as a Training Captain.

However, it was an earlier incident in 1978 that profoundly influenced my thinking about landing techniques. During a routine flight as a First Officer on a B727-100, a visual illusion at night caused me to misjudge the flare height, resulting in a firm landing. This experience underscored the need for a more precise and reliable method of landing.

Research and Development

By 1983, I was also instructing at the RAAF Point Cook Flying Club, where I rediscovered my passion for elementary flying training. In 1986, after I was appointed by TAA as a DC-9 Training Captain while still instructing concurrently on light aircraft. Then and for many years after, the crippling issues with conventional landing training became clearly apparent. Primarily, they are universal for any airplane type, from sailplanes to A380s and the industry is none the wiser.

It was at Point Cook in 1985 that my 1965 inspiration from ‘The Dam Busters’ resurfaced. This led to my serious research and development of a comprehensive approach and landing training technique, later to become known as the ‘Jacobson Flare.’

In November 1987, I presented my initial findings in a paper titled ‘Where to Flare?’ at the Australian Aviation Symposium in Canberra. This new, innovative technique was based on ‘simple, unassailable aerodynamic logic‘ and the use of triangulation to define a virtual eye path to touchdown. Unlike traditional methods, my innovative new technique eliminated the need to judge the height of an invisible side of a triangle, which varies for different aircraft types. Instead, it relies on visible and quantifiable cues, making the flare point predictable, consistent, and adaptable to virtually any aircraft that flares.

One of my airline colleagues, initially sceptical, stated, “This has the elegant simplicity of the safety pin.”

Moreover, many more pilots have described my technique as ‘quantifying what pilots have long been trying to do, by guesswork and repetition.’

The Jacobson Flare App for iOS

In 2012, I collaborated with Jamie Durrant, Director of Essentials Magazine and Multimedia, to create a new chapter in the Jacobson Flare story. Together, we developed the Jacobson Flare App for iOS, which was released in June 2014. The app provides a step-by-step guide to implementing the technique. The Jacobson Flare is easily accessible to pilots worldwide.

The app is praised for its design, functionality, and presentation. It has earned respect from thousands of pilots in over 80 countries. Recognised by industry leaders, the Jacobson Flare Pty Ltd was shortlisted as a finalist for the prestigious Innovation Awards of Aerospace Australia at the Avalon Airshow in 2015.

For the full stories behind this post, I invite you to click the following links: Captain DM Jacobson and The Jacobson Flare Story.

And please, do stay tuned for Part 3, which will highlight the unique advantages of the Jacobson Flare.

Wishing you many safe landings

Captain David M Jacobson FRAeS MAP

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

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.

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.