Handling the Big Jets

A big subject posed by many pilots for many years. And one of the biggest questions is now answered clearly and simply, in the Jacobson Flare App for iPad, available now on the App Store.

D.P. Davies ‘Handling the Big Jets‘, 1967 wrote, “The only manoeuvre left worth doing, the only manoeuvre calling for any real native flying skill, is the landing.”

This underscores the fact that the landing flare is one of the last critical phases of flight to which the term ‘seat-of-the-pants’ may still be applied and might just explain why it has long-been regarded as an art. You can test this by asking any pilot a very simple question: “How do you land your airplane?”

A quite common initial response, even from highly experienced pilots, is a nervous giggle, frequently followed by an inadequate throw-away line such as “Stuffed if I know”, “I just keep my eyes closed and hope for the best” or “You just get the hang of it”.

While most aviation subjects and manoeuvres are clearly defined, such responses suggest strongly that the technical aspects of the landing flare manoeuvre are not.

Strangely, most attempts at a factual description fall very short, because they do not explain HOW to land. They only suggest WHAT to do. Sadly, the subject is possibly the most neglected in aviation, as inaccurate and inadequate practices have merely been recycled.

To really understand how to land any airplane consistently well, let alone explain this to a student pilot, a pilot must be able to answer:

1. Where to aim?

2. How to aim?

3. When to commence the flare?

4. How much to flare?

5. How fast to flare (flare rate)?

Until 1987, not one of these questions had been answered, definitively.

Since 1965, David Jacobson has researched, compiled and developed a comprehensive approach and landing training technique. Now, proven and well established, the Jacobson Flare is the unique and quantifiable explanation of what pilots have been trying to achieve by ‘feel’ and guesswork, with varying results, for over 100 years. This technique is equally suitable for all airplanes, from learning on the smallest training airplanes through to handling the big jets.

Perhaps the two best descriptions come from highly experienced professional pilots: “the greatest single advance in flying training in many, many years and represents simple unassailable aerodynamic logic” and “this is probably what we have all been trying to do all these years.”

Handling the Big Jets should not, and no longer has to, rely solely on ‘real native flying skill’.

Now the Jacobson Flare app for iPad, featured on the Australian App Store in ‘Best New Apps’, is available world-wide. Suitable for pilots at any level of experience, it presents the Jacobson Flare clearly and comprehensively, as never before. Now, the question, “how to land a plane?”, can be answered with complete confidence, by any pilot.