How to land a plane

A fair question, posed by many pilots for many years and now answered clearly and simply, in the Jacobson Flare App for iPad, available now on the App Store.

Someone once quipped: “The general idea, when trying to land a plane, is to aim for the Earth and then just miss!” Now, that is not as silly as it sounds. We actually do aim at a point on the runway or airstrip, and we flare the airplane so that the body or fuselage does just miss – it is the landing gear that touches down.

Strangely, most attempts at a factual description fall very short, because they do not explain HOW to land a plane. 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.

More often than not, a serious question on the subject, put to an experienced pilot, will be rewarded with a nervous giggle and a throw-away cliche, such as ‘stuffed if I know’, ‘close my eyes and hope for the best’ or ‘you just get the hang of it’, or similar.

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.

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.”

Now the Jacobson Flare app, which featured on the Australian iTunes App Store in ‘Best New Apps’ on its launch in 2014, is now available world-wide for Apple iOS and Android. Suitable for pilots at any level of experience, it presents the Jacobson Flare clearly and comprehensively, as never before. Now, the questions, “how to land a plane?”, or “landing a plane?”, can be answered correctly, with complete confidence, by any pilot.