Flare

[Eric Page]

As you arrive on short final (15-20' AGL) and slow to 1.2 Vso shift your visual focus out toward the end of the runway and use your peripheral vision to determine when to raise the nose.

This is definitely worth restating. If your vision is fixed on the runway immediately in front of the nose, a modest descent rate can look alarming and lead to too much flare. That, in turn, can cause all sorts of problems (pilot-induced-oscillations, loss of airspeed, stall, hard landing, bounce).

Looking toward the far end of the runway, your perception of descent rate is somewhat muted by peripheral vision, so this tendency is reduced. The goal is to rely on the subtle cues from your periphery, and develop that "seat-of-the-pants" feeling that you've heard so much about.

Keep working on it; it'll come! Don't be afraid to ask for one lesson with another instructor if you feel you've reached a road-block. Sometimes simply hearing something explained, or seeing it demonstrated, another way makes all the difference.

Eric

[Kamic]

What is it that you think is wrong? You are walking away and the airplane can be used again, aren't you?

no trying to sell a home and pay rent i'll be back flying again someday

[escapepilot]

Help us by narrowing down the potential problem areas.
Are you able to hold a fairly stable approach? - steady speed w/o much up, down, left, right correction?
Are you having problems in the flare before touchdown? - too high, too low, dropping in, ballooning up?
Is it after touchdown? - bouncing, darting left or right, tail bouncing?

[Grant Smith]

"Anyone have any good suggestions on techniques to improve my landings? I'm struggling with my flares... "

1. Fly a good approach. That is good pitch, power and speed control control as well as constant pitch/speed and coordinated turns. A good landing comes from a good approach. Decide on a speed to fly and then find the proper pitch and power to fly it.

2. At 50 feet check your speed and resist the temptation to raise the nose. If necessary even lower the nose slightly.

3. At 10 feet (or less for a cub, 30 feet for a 747) raise the nose slightly to cut the decent rate in half.

4. Hold constant altitude just clear of the runway. How high depends on your skill level.

5. If the aircraft sinks closer to the ground the stick is moveing aft. If the aircraft is climbing the stick is moving forward. Continual aft motion is required to keep the aircraft from sinking. As the speed disipates, the stick will need to move more rapidly to the full aft (nose up) elevator stop to arrest the unavoidable loss of altitude and contact with the runway.

6. Congratulations, you have just completed a full stall touchdown with no cross wind. Cross wind landing and directonal control after touchdown are separate lessons. Wheel and other landing techniqes are also to be covered in additional lessons.

[DanChief]

I don't use the term "Flare" -- doesn't mean much and has no parallel to anything we do in the air. I call it the "Level off."

It's merely a transition from down to level.

[rosiejerryrosie]

Dan, You just took the words out of my mouth. I was re-reading this thread and it hit me - "flare" is likely to give the wrong impression - you don't want to "flare" you want to level off and let the airplane land itself....

[DanChief]

Dan, You just took the words out of my mouth. I was re-reading this thread and it hit me - "flare" is likely to give the wrong impression - you don't want to "flare" you want to level off and let the airplane land itself....

Exactly. I've removed "flare" from my flying lexicon.

:-)

I sent you a PM, Jerry -- I'm not far from you and my 65-LA should double our numbers!

[Hiperbiper]

Kamic;
Though I'm not a CFI one of my bits of advise to folks having landing problems (real or imagined) is fun and free of charge. Go to your favorite airport where you can see the runway and just watch the planes landing. Watch the good ones and the bad ones...you will see how the landing breaks down into pieces; approach, roundout and touchdown and, if you have your CFI or just another pilot sit there with you you can get a a running commentary about things done right and things done less right.
Sometimes it helps to have a bridge between the stick model used by your ground instructor and actually being in the airplane trying to reason out what you and the airplane are supposed to be doing...

It's fun, it's free and it's educational. Like a 100LL powered simulator!

Hope this helps ya'

Chris
(who watched a guy in a T-50 Bamboo Bomber do wheelies one afternoon and wheelies clicked...)

[DanChief]

Kamic;
Though I'm not a CFI one of my bits of advise to folks having landing problems (real or imagined) is fun and free of charge. Go to your favorite airport where you can see the runway and just watch the planes landing. Watch the good ones and the bad ones...you will see how the landing breaks down into pieces; approach, roundout and touchdown and, if you have your CFI or just another pilot sit there with you you can get a a running commentary about things done right and things done less right.
Sometimes it helps to have a bridge between the stick model used by your ground instructor and actually being in the airplane trying to reason out what you and the airplane are supposed to be doing...

It's fun, it's free and it's educational. Like a 100LL powered simulator!

Hope this helps ya'

Chris
(who watched a guy in a T-50 Bamboo Bomber do wheelies one afternoon and wheelies clicked...)

This is great advice!!

(I still do this ;-) )