captain-david-jacobson

“I’ve just lost my treasured aviation job: What do I do, now?”

“I’ve just lost my treasured aviation job: What do I do, now?”

Happy New Year 2021 to all of our friends and supporters around the world.

Thanks to the current and unrelenting Covid-19 pandemic, the world is witnessing unprecedented restrictions and shutdowns in trade, industry, commerce, education and transport, to name a select few. Aviation, particularly, has been hit hard. 20/20 hindsight has taken on a whole new meaning!

Airlines have stood-down entire fleets of old and new international and domestic jet transports, such as the A380, A350, B747 and B787 and positioned them in desert airports; Loyal, long-term staff, in many categories, including senior aircrew, have been stood-down; some have even been offered voluntary and forced redundancy packages. Fleets of training aircraft stand idle.

Some airlines and many general aviation companies, such as flying schools, have been forced into administration for various reasons. Many pilots have, for the first time, found themselves considering temporary and permanent re-employment and re-training alternatives to their cherished first choice: flying. And this hurts, badly, because a professional pilot does not regard flying so much as work, but as sheer joy. The trick is to find as secure a suitable and satisfying position as possible and then embrace it, fully.

We hope, sincerely, that all who wish to may find new positions in their chosen career, by reducing to turbulence penetration speed, tightening your seat belts and riding out the rough air. This will never be just a ‘storm in a teacup‘, but it will pass.

Nevertheless, it’s always tough when this stuff occurs and I wish to offer some reassurance that, sooner or later, other doors will open for you; the professionalism, knowledge and skills that you have honed will not be wasted. Over my 55 years in the industry, when things like this have occurred, I cannot recall anyone, who was totally dedicated to the profession, failing to secure a new position, better than the last and, hopefully, in no time at all. I wish everyone success for the future.

The airline scene and flight training will open up again and when it does, there will be many gaps to fill – perhaps more than ever before. Utilise this opportune time to upgrade your ATPL theory subjects and any other related qualification; apply everywhere that is of interest to you and update those applications: every 100 hours, every specialist rating or renewal, every airplane type endorsement, gas turbine theory, (almost to what you received at Christmas and what you had for lunch yesterday!), etc, etc. Add further value to your C.V. It won’t be wasted. Any excuse to make some clerk, somewhere, re-open and update your application file and maybe remark, to someone important, “Gee, this one is really keen”: They’ll get so sick of hearing from you, they’ll offer you a job! (It worked for me, back in 1969!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

May I commend some further reading: the blogs, https://www.jacobsonflare.com/from-our-logbooks/the-best-advice-i-was-ever-offered-by-the-best-pilot-i-ever-flew-with-captain-geoffrey-w-lushey-dfm-7-july-2020/ and

https://www.jacobsonflare.com/from-our-logbooks/just-sayings-building-pilots-resilience-in-aviation-august-16-2020/

In the meantime, understand that it doesn’t matter so much when something goes wrong: What matters is what you do about it.

Don’t wait for ’someone’ to fix it. Australia’s famous AFL champion, Ron Barassi once said, “There are 3 kinds of people in this world:

1. Those who make things happen;

2. Those who watch things happen; and

3. Those who ‘blink’ a couple of times and say, ‘What happened?’ ”

Take whatever steps you see fit, to take command of your own destiny, as soon as possible. That’s how you will survive this regrettable situation and fly further, faster and higher than ever.

For what it’s worth, it’s how I survived such events (and there were several), in my career.

 

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 was to be standardised at Soar Aviation, but …

The Jacobson Flare was to be standardised at Soar Aviation, but …

Following on from our last post, Generation Next, which highlighted a group of young aviators, comes another exciting story with amazing potential for Australian Aviation. This one focuses on a special group of dedicated flight instructors, open-minded, honest and totally professional who are already improving the shape of future aviation training.

On 15-16 December 2020, a total of 7 additional (9 in all) senior Flight Instructor/managers, at Soar Aviation’s YMMB (Moorabbin, Melbourne VIC) campus, demonstrated and subsequently were certified as proficient at applying and instructing the Jacobson Flare.

This completed another key phase in the implementation of the Jacobson Flare as the standard approach and landing training technique, at Soar. It follows initial mass briefings at Moorabbin, detailed Zoom briefings to both the Melbourne- and Sydney-based flight instructing staff, a comprehensive ‘App-open’ theory assessment of knowledge and thorough development of pre-flight briefing material, to be shared with Box Hill Institute in their joint collaboration. One pilot was honest enough to explain that, initially, he was a sceptic of the Jacobson Flare (as was I, when I first thought of it!); but now, he is a convert.

However, an additional, unplanned and unexpected aspect of the assessment occurred:

I was simply blown away by the highest levels of professionalism, conscientiousness, enthusiasm, competence, confidence and mature temperament, demonstrated by every single pilot with whom I had the privilege to fly. From weight and balance computations, walkaround inspections, fuel management, use of checklists and standard operating procedures (SOPs), passenger and take-off briefings, right through EVERY aspect of the conduct of each and every flight, these young, yet experienced pilots demonstrated the highest levels of that intangible quality, Airmanship. Nothing whatsoever was overlooked, ignored or neglected. They are a credit to themselves and their organisation.

It was really gratifying to be able to take a glimpse into the future of Soar Aviation … and it was looking good.

* BUT … a further, unexpected aspect then occurred:

Regrettably, Soar Aviation was put into administration on 29 December 2020, according to notices published by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).

The Jacobson Flare Pty Ltd expresses its sadness in learning of these unfortunate developments. No-one wants to hear of aviation companies failing, at any time, but this has happened at a time when Australia was coming out the Covid lockdowns, that were endured during 2020.

The Jacobson Flare Pty Ltd never received payment from the Management of Soar Aviation for the training provided – no doubt, just one of a long line of creditors.

However, the positive to come out of this is that this group of professional instructors is qualified to take the Jacobson Flare with them, into their future endeavours, their every next airplane and for the benefit of their future  students. We wish them every success, in the future.

In addition, an old friend, China Southern WA Flying College, entered liquidation on 21 December 2020. Back in 1999, this college HALVED its courses’ average flying times to first solo, following their introduction of the Jacobson Flare, as their standard approach and landing training technique.

The official, original statistics from that time are available, on request, to info@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.

Uh-oh! – This runway is nothing like I imagined, at all…

Uh-oh! – This runway is nothing like I imagined, at all…

You’ve just learned to fly and proudly earned your PPL or CPL. Your home airfield was wide and flat : ‘Aren’t they all?’ Well, actually, not necessarily. The main runways may have been  30m, 45m or even 60m wide, sealed and painted with centreline and other markings : or, perhaps, the sealed runway(s) were narrower at 18m, or were just airstrips with gravel or grass landing surfaces.

Sooner or later, you will fly to an airfield with varying characteristics and you’ll notice some marked differences. For starters, the airfield elevation may or may not be close to Mean Sea Level, which will affect airplane performance. It may be in a closely built-up, highly populated city or it may lie in a regional area, with plenty of open space surrounding; or in a desert or high country area.

The runways (or airstrips) could differ markedly from your home airfield and may be more uphill / downhill / undulating / longer / shorter / narrower / wider / sealed / unsealed / lighter-coloured / darker-coloured than the ones you are used to. And, from my observations of many years, they can be quite confusing to deal with, for pilots at any level of experience.

These variations are a fact of life and must be accommodated, despite some very real  visual illusions that can and do occur when approaching to land – especially at night. Up-/down-sloping runways need earlier/later flare commencement points, respectively, (exactly the same issues as  approaching at too high/too low an approach path angle).

Runways that are wider/narrower than those familiar to us cause height illusions that can cause pilots to flare too early/too late, respectively.

Even landing with a lesser or greater flap angle can affect pilot judgment, due to the different  airplane body angle. In larger aircraft, this becomes significant, due to the greater change in the height relationship between the pilots’ eye position and the relatively well-aft main landing gear.

All of these issues are well-documented, but the conventional solutions are varied and widely left to pilot judgment and experience. This situation has never been good enough, because  inconsistent judgment distracts and distorts from the main task: flying a precise visual eye path approach to a defined aiming point, suitably determined to suit the airplane size.

The Jacobson Flare explains how all of these issues are geometrically self-compensated, most of them automatically, just by using our innovative longitudinal flare initiation point, rather than a conventional educated ‘guess’ of flare height. It’s that simple.

 

 

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.

If you really want to impress another pilot with your landings, explain to them HOW you do it

If you really want to impress another pilot with your landings, explain to them HOW you do it

It’s a very natural thing … for anyone … to want to show your mates, your buddies, supervisors, or even examiners, just how well you can land your airplane. After all, you’ve now got the hang of it … on this airplane type. You’ve practised, you’ve mis-landed a couple of times, maybe; you’ve flared a bit too early and landed a bit long, but hey, that’s better than flaring late and ending up with a firm, short touchdown.

Now, you can display your skills … but can you display them consistently well? At any airfield? In challenging conditions? We’ve probably all thought (if not stated): “I’ll show you how it’s done”, only to find that the result was less brilliant than we had hoped for.

The problem:

The un-acknowledged, but honest truth is that NONE of us were ever actually taught HOW to land a plane. Sure, we were briefed on WHAT we were supposed to do; and it was demonstrated to us what we were expected to reproduce. But we were never actually taught HOW. Now, that is not really surprising, because the conventional skills needed to learn to land a plane may be compared with those of a child learning to hit a nail with a hammer. The more you hit, the better you get; but the best of carpenters still bend a nail, occasionally. The same applies to sporting stars playing any ball game; the best of them can still manage to mis-hit or mis-kick the ball … when it matters most. And the best of pilots can mis-land.

Has anyone ever seen a decent book or video on HOW to hit a nail with a hammer? No? This is because a sequence of physical motor skills is difficult to put into simple words and things like pressure, speed and other nuances are subtle and virtually un-quantifiable, without scientific instruments at hand.

And so, we resort to lovely words like judgment, perception, feel and experience, none of which can be taught; and we tell ourselves that if we practise, over and over, then the repetition will provide the results we are seeking. This has been handed down, without question, for over 100 years, while everything else in aviation has moved on.

We’ve even kidded ourselves that this airplane type or that one needs a special technique, so we were tutored to ‘forget everything you’ve been told and do this’ … such as the dopey part-flare and then roll-forward-and-reduce-thrust-back-to-idle party trick I’ve witnessed, often, on the beautiful B727, B737 and DC-9, only because certain pilots did not understand the correct flare height to flare those airplanes. When the roll-forward part was executed, with thrust still around 70% N1 (fan RPM), the airplanes took off down the runway, in ground effect, like scalded cats, often requiring heavy braking effort after a deep touchdown.

The problem is we didn’t then have a universal, quantifiable and consistent approach and landing flare technique.

The solution:

Since 1987, we’ve had such a technique – the Jacobson Flare – and now we have an intelligent and incisive explanation on HOW to land a plane. Now, you can really impress other pilots because you can explain, factually and simply, HOW you do it. You’ll also be able to show them.

 

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.

Your students go solo in far less time … isn’t that bad for business?

Your students go solo in far less time … isn’t that bad for business?

Throughout my 50-year career as an Australian professional pilot (1965-2015), it was considered normal for civilian student pilots to attain the proficiency required to achieve their first solo flight after an average of 10-12 hours’ dual instruction.

More lately, anecdotal reports indicate that many students haven’t reached solo standard by 30-35  hours! That number happens to be around the minimum required for a restricted Private Pilot Licence and frankly, is just ridiculous.

Are landings that difficult? … Or have conventional landing techniques passed their use-by date?

Do flight instructors really know HOW to teach landings? … Or have they just accepted the conventional wisdom that it takes time for students to ‘get the hang’ of learning how to land a plane. After all, the ‘watch what I do and copy it’ approach has served us well for over 100 years … hasn’t it?

Because the longer it takes a student to solo, the better for business, right?

Or is it?

Many flight training schools and colleges have been established to meet the initially-perceived-but-now-actual shortage of pilots, world-wide. And they are still teaching the old, tired methods, based on trial-and-error and developing judgment by repetition …why? Because we’ve always done it this way.

Well, this head-in-the-sand attitude is going to cost them dearly, because many enter into fixed-price contracts training cadet pilots for customer airlines and, with extended training times to first solo, the income will be quickly consumed. That’s a real cost which could be avoided.

Then, what about the wear and tear on instructors and students, each group with their own frustrations and lack/loss of confidence?

Next, how about the totally unnecessary wear and tear, and damage to airplanes … even loss through accidents? And possible injury and loss of life?

Even at schools where the student base is centred on discretionary spending on a new pastime, how long will they persist, if they are achieving little or slow progress?

Since 1987, a more efficient, simpler, safer and cost-effective universal technique has been available. And since 2014, this technique has been within easy reach. A training technique that employs sound mathematical principles, rather than guesswork, myths and legends will get student pilots solo in half the time …

How can that be bad for business?

 

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.