Don't Flare On Landings - MzeroA Flight Training

You want to make sure that you are watching this Wednesday, August 19th at 8 PM Eastern at one of these two links:

In this week's video series of "The Secret To A Perfect Landing," we are going to talk about the word FLARE. In place of saying do not flare on landing let's try saying to "transition" to slow flight.

In the comments below, let us know if this series is helping you with your flight training.

[chrism]

3:28 I was landing like this 11 hours into training adding more back pressure until it stalled and bounced. Then I started transitioning my eyes down the runway and holding it off, slightly nose up, flying it down the runway, letting the plane practically land itself. Really enjoy the external drone shots.

[ryankelley]

I'm a student pilot and I recently figured this out. Just keep slowly bringing the yoke back to to keep the nose at the end of the runway. The less yoke the smoother the landing. When I was flaring at the end, I couldn't get a graceful landing.

[erik]

This is absolutely true! The trick that helped me nail my landings is to set the airplane to cruise attitude, with a bit of back pressure, and hold it, keeping the airplane in the ground effect as long as possible. Flaring with nose high attitude like that almost always resulted in hard landings.

[tyler-zwyh]

Landing really clicked for me when my instructor made me do a no flap landing and said, “the goal is not to land it’s to get into ground effect” and all the floating I did with no flaps really helped me get the feel down.

[danielgoodson]

Semantics perhaps drive this delightful video. Well produced and well explained. Kudos.
Respectfully, IMHO Flair is not a singular action, but a progressive series of control pressures (constantly changing) referencing flight surface/control effectiveness with your corresponding desired HAT. You enter a flair and it slowly progresses to touchdown. Chasing moving targets are never easy (when your inputs must constantly change due to diminishing airspeed, entering ground effect and control effectiveness changes. Learning this feel of continuous control pressures changes to create stability As tough as it gets. Mastering the process, however, gets another shirt tail removed with ample smiles and high fives).
Keep up the good work. Thanks for being a pilot and a pilot instructor. Best to you and yours.

[CaptainSwoop]

For the 54 years I've been involved, the procedure has been called a landing flare. The first landing demonstrated here was an over rotation. If a student hauled the yoke fully back to flare, then the presumed prior demonstration / briefing was inadequate. Rearranging noun's wont resolve an over rotation.

[thomasw.richter]

Once more. You are absolutely right! „Flaring“ often leads to over rotation. Therefore it‘s quibbling to differentiate between flare and over rotation. Your technic is the best one and flaring is for big airplanes. As student I was told: flare! Now I am usimg you technic for my C182 and everything looks better. It is simply not important whether the nose wheel is 2 inches or 20 inches aboves the ground when the main wheels are touching the ground. But not „flaring“ leads to better control.
Thank you.😊

[MrRufust]

You filled in the holes in my swiss cheese regarding my historical problem with landings. That is what I will do. That concept of flare has been my problem. Now slow flight to landing using the same references to the horizon at the end of the runway without pulling back. Thank you!

[carlosenriquezegarra]

Such a difference man! no more flares! transition from now on! thanks for your advice.

[tomsparks]

When I was in flight training 25 years ago, I did this very thing. It wasn't what I was taught, but it produced smoother landings though at a slightly higher speed. The key was making the transition late enough to get the airplane very close to the runway--two feet or less--so that when the plane sank to the runway it wasn't sinking fast. A little chirp from the tires and it was on the ground.

I was taught to transition to level flight over the runway, and as the plane just began to sink, raise the nose juuuust enough to resist the sink while speed decayed. Do that a couple more times and you were on the ground gently. Trouble was it was hard for me to sense the incipient sink and I was not adept at raising the nose juuuust enough but not too much to keep it in level flight. My butt cheeks weren't very attuned to the vertical motions of the airplane so I was always guessing on the sink and making inconsistent, bumpy landings.

[rallwest]

I've just begun my private pilot training and a couple weeks ago did my first few landings, and exactly as you illustrated in your first landing here with the "flare" I noticed that basically we stalled the aircraft during the glide along the runway, and it suddenly dropped. My thought was "that can't be the right technique!" And I thought that the best thing to do would be to transition into level flight along the run way and allow the plane to settle down slowly as it bleeds off speed. I also thought that pulling the nose up to the point where I couldn't see anything in front of me was counter to everything I have been hearing up until that point.
Thanks for the great demonstration.I also want to acknowledge that I am proud that I am at the stage I am given how few hours I actually have flown. I'm not saying that I am any further along than the average or anything like that, but I have really been aggressive in my learning and studying, and in being as prepared as possible before I go up in the aircraft. I have actually found that the cfi's that I started with have been way to lackadaisical about my training in particular, and haven't seemed to taken much interest in having me advance as quickly as possible. I think this is a product of our society and creating "followers" and most people just follow the guidelines that they learned without bringing another and higher level of responsibility to the equation. I believe this might be the main reason that the average student pilot takes 65 to 75 hours of flight training to complete their Private Pilot Cert. I think that people must get discouraged or run out of money with what appears to me to be a long drawn out waste of time and an irresponsible administration of the training. (this is how it occurs to me, and may not be how it actually is) I like your training videos and your thoroughness, and i like that you learn and then apply from your experiences instead of "just following the norm." You seem to me to be an innovator, and your innovation and observations that you put into your training will create a newer and more effective set of procedures and guides that will lead to safer more responsible pilots. And that is how all innovation moves the planet forward.

[jonathanmoore]

My instructors taught me this way. Both of them had me keeping the aiming point at the same spot on my windscreen, then transitioning to straight and level flight with eyes down the runway and at the correct airspeed, then holding the nose wheel off for as long as possible.

[alexandersheppard]

*Sees title.

"Ok then, I'll pretend I'm landing on a carrier."

[AnonyMous-jflc]

This is the method my CFI taught me. It works great across a wide range of conditions. I can come in with full flaps or no flaps and this method gives me a soft touch every time. I can also come in faster to bust through drafts and wind, it just floats a foot above the runway before the speed bleeds off.

[Longspout]

Logged 11 landings my last flight and I was happy with about 4 of them… excited to try this mindset next flight.

[henrychinaski]

I'm a student pilot in Germany and today I flew to another airport for the first time.
Flared to soon and balooned. Scheibe Falke SF25C touring motor glider with a main central gear, tailwheel and additional wheels below the wings. Should have watched your video before...😊
Great content! Thank you!

[MJ-iswd]

Thank you for everything you do! Your an excellent teacher and love your craft. It consistently shows in the quality content of MzeroA!

[bsatchel]

My landings improved when I thought of the flare as "dissipating energy till touchdown". For me, runway contact is not an active control input, it's energy dissipation.

[alanmiller]

Jason, nice video. I think you nailed it when you referred to slow flight. IMO we don't (really) do slow flight anymore, and as a result many pilots are not familiar with how the wing reacts at the proper landing speed. Slow flight skills are essential to go arounds, landings, stall recoveries, etc. I have found very few pilots that are confident at true slow flight that don't make consistent safe landings on target, both power on and power off.

[SnglCoil]

Beautiful flare on that second landing! Well done!