Learning when to start your flare! Learning to land an airplane can be the most frustrating part of learning to fly. However, after you have gained an understanding of the concept of landing and are practicing them, landing will be the most rewarding part.

Flare Height Start a slow transition to landing when the Tree line meets the horizon.

The key to a successful landing is a good approach. What this means is that the aircraft must be aligned with the runway, on speed and on the desired glide path. Getting the aircraft at the correct speed is easy enough, however some people have trouble maintaining a constant glide path. The easiest way to maintain a constant glide angle is to place your intended point of touchdown in the windscreen and keep it there. As you descend, the point should stay in the same spot, however it will get bigger. The center of the point should remain in the same spot. If the point should move down in the windscreen, that means you are descending at a lesser glide angle. Lower the nose until the point is back in the same spot, then continue. If the point should rise up, the glide angle has increased. Raise the nose until the point returns to the original position in the windscreen. Note: If you haven't noticed there is an airplane pivoting around a landing point. This is to show what can happen if you only use one reference point to maintain your glide path. You can keep the landing point in the same spot in the windscreen at all times, but this does not mean that you are on the same glide path. The aircraft can change glide paths while maintaining that reference point. So how do you fix this and insure that you descend on your desired path to the runway? In order to do this, you need to reference the horizon. Keep the horizon about half-way up the windscreen and place your landing point about a quarter of the way up in the windscreen. With two reference points locked in position, you can not change glide paths. If you do change the angle that you are descending at, one of these points has to appear to move in the windscreen. Make sense? Don't be alarmed when the horizon is no longer visible. It will merge with the tree line. *Examine the animation at the top of the page. You see as the aircraft descends, the horizon and the landing point remain in the same spot.

Use Two Points Of Reference Two points allow you to identify if you are changing your glide path.

Time to Flare Now that you know how to insure a constant glide path, you now have to determine when to start the transition to landing. The easiest way for me to teach people Transition Height is to show them how the horizon line meets the runway. As you descend, the runway grows bigger and bigger. The end of the runway appears to start to move closer and closer to the horizon line. When the end of the runway and the horizon line converge, that is the transition point. Here you should begin to watch your point of intended landing. When your touchdown point shows relative movement (the point appears to begin moving toward the nose), you should start to reduce power and begin to pitch up in order to keep the point in the same spot in the windscreen. How fast you pitch is critical. I tell my students to ask themselves a question. "Am I descending? If the answer is yes, then you can continue to pitch up to keep the point in the same spot." Ask yourself this until you touch down. You will have to use your peripheral visual as well as your forward view to determine if you are descending when you are close to the ground. As you descend on your glide path, your aircraft should be trimmed out so that if you take your hands off the controls, the aircraft will remain in its present attitude. When you reduce power, the aircraft will try to decrease airspeed. In an attempt to regain that airspeed, the aircraft will pitch down. (An aircraft can be thought of as being trimmed to maintain an airspeed. Less power - Less airspeed) If you do nothing, the airplane will fall below the glide path. This is why you have to increase pitch to keep the point in the same position in the windscreen. Right before touchdown, the point should disappear under the nose. After your point disappears, your eyes should look well beyond the nose in order to continue judging sink rate. If you look right in front of the nose, it is hard to accurately judge your landing, so look beyond your nose. Concerns during landing Some people are worried about flaring too much, and striking the tail. When it comes to landing a Cessna, it is almost impossible to strike the tail unless you stall the aircraft. You won't stall the aircraft unless you run out of airspeed. With flaps, the plane can touch down at a very low airspeed. Remember, ask yourself, "Am I descending, if so I can pitch up." A good rule of thumb on how high to pitch, is no higher than where the nose is touching the tree line. If you find yourself flaring too high you will quickly run out of airspeed. This will lead to the aircraft stalling and impacting the ground rather firmly. To avoid this, concentrate on the procedures I outlined above. If your landing isn't working out, GO Around and try it again. You will quickly grasp landing if you try these steps.

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