Author: David Jacobson

NEW: TJF App Version 2.0.6 with new Appendix G: Clear to Land

NEW: TJF App Version 2.0.6 – with new Appendix G: Clear to Land – released 23 December 2021

In early 2021, while delivering a JF training package in Brisbane, Australia, for yet another flight training organisation – FlightScope Aviation – a highly experienced instructor asked, “Have you considered adding a new section in the App, containing the accurate phraseology and useful pointers, including the ‘patter‘, that we just applied today?”

In July, we announced we that we had decided to add a new Appendix G to the JF app, which would highlight many practical tips, together with key terms and phrases, all designed to emphasise and achieve the vital application of the Jacobson Flare in the real world.

On 23 December 2021, we released the new Version 2.0.6 of the Jacobson Flare and we’ve titled the new Appendix G – ‘Clear to Land‘ – or ‘How to Apply the Jacobson Flare in the Real World‘.

It comprises distilled insights for all pilots and flight instructors straight from the most reliable source – the originator, researcher and developer of the Jacobson Flare – Captain David Jacobson FRAeS MAP.

The content in this appendix is necessarily limited to 10 pages – it does assume a thorough comprehension of the Jacobson Flare – but it should serve to direct the reader to, and to supplement, the expanded material for each topic, contained within the JF App Treatise. It offers phrases, cautions and JF-specific flight instructor ‘patter‘, developed by the author and others – over the last 36 years – that flight instructors may find useful as they develop experience in teaching the Jacobson Flare.

It is designed to highlight the practical, real-world application of the Jacobson Flare, by attempting to engage with the reader as if side-by-side in a cockpit, somewhere.

“For we are all learners, doers and teachers”

Richard Bach (Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah – 1977)

 

 

However, this update to V2.0.6 is more than just the addition of a new appendix. We’ve tidied up some unnecessary page duplications (to optimise space), fixed some bugs and made provision for a future Index – in addition to the wide-ranging Contents pages. We plan to release that update during early-mid 2022.

So trash the old Version 2.0.5 (356 pages) and download the NEW Version 2.0.6 (now 345 pages, despite the additional content) to take full advantage of the author’s 36-years’ experience in explaining and instructing his original Jacobson Flare – the world’s first and only universal, quantifiable, reliable and unassailable approach and landing training technique for all fixed-wing pilots.

 

Wishing you many safe landings

 

Captain David M Jacobson FRAeS MAP

 

Would you care to experience that unsurpassed sense of accomplishment, derived from executing consistently beautiful landings, more often?

For starters, Download the FREE Jacobson Flare LITE, our no fuss/no frills introduction. Here we demonstrate, step by step, the application of the Jacobson Flare on a typical grass airstrip at Porepunkah, YPOK.

 

We invite you to browse the consistently positive comments on our Testimonials page. Many pilots, of all levels of experience, have downloaded our Apps. Read about their own experiences with the Jacobson Flare technique and the App.

Then download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare app – for iOS. You’re already possibly paying $300+/hour to hire an aeroplane: You’ll recover the cost of the app, in just ONE LESS-NEEDED CIRCUIT. Moreover, you’ll have an invaluable reference tool, throughout your entire life in aviation.

Download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare App for iOS devices now.

 

We invite you, also, to review our new, FREE companion app,

offering a convenient way of staying abreast of our latest blogs.

 

Download the Jacobson Flare NEWS App for iOS devices now.

Aim Point Comparison Calculators for True Professionals

Aim Point Comparison Calculators for true Professionals

Embedded within the Jacobson Flare App are 5 bespoke calculators. Two are designed to calculate the longitudinal Aim and Flare Points for both heavy and light airplanes, respectively. These provide a major component of the Jacobson Flare approach and landing technique.

However, the JF App for iOS also contains three specially-created calculators. These enable accurate comparison of the correct visual aim point for any given airplane, with the aim point defined by the geometric specification of the three most common electronic glide path systems, namely ILS, PAPI and the Australian-designed but sadly obsolescent T-VASIS.

As an example, the PAPI is a virtual point source, providing a 3° ± 12’ design eye path to just one aim point. There is no standard MEHT.

Since the PAPI is generally installed to suit the largest airplane type operating into an airport (often B747/B777), many MEHTs are of the order of 71- 75ft, with corresponding aiming points of approximately 1500ft (450m). This makes many PAPIs unsuitable for narrow-body transport jet operations, let alone executive jets, prop jets and other charter airplanes, which have aim points generally around 1000ft (300m). Some sort of correction – or compromise – is necessary; but what kind and when?

In that instant of realisation – during the approach – that the 2 aim points don’t align and confusion occurs?

Or pre-flight, with an accurate aim point calculation for each of your networks’ destination and alternate runways safely stored in your personal Aim Point Comparison database?

As an example, on a level runway, for a 3° PAPI to suit the B737/A320 visual aim point of 1000ft (300m), an MEHT of approx 50 ft would be required. (1000ft divided by 20).

Accordingly, it is sometimes impossible to satisfy the twin requirements of flying both a PAPI on-slope indication and an accurate 3° eye path to the correct aim point for the airplane type.

Another significant factor is that published MEHT data does not consider the runway slope. Downhill slopes, especially, have a profound effect on the siting of PAPI installations, in satisfying a specified MEHT. They are considerably deeper than those on level runways or, indeed, uphill-sloping runways.

The PAPI Aim Point Calculator (along with those for the ILS and T-VASIS) in this Reference section, accommodate the runway slope and other factors in their comparison with nominal visual aim points.

Cast your eyes over this example: The standard B737 visual aim point is 1000ft/300m from the approach threshold. On this runway, the MEHT is 74ft. This would place the PAPI aim point at 1513ft/461m – if the runway was level. Even this would be 513ft/156m deeper than the correct visual aim point, which is ‘King’.

However, this runway is not level – it has a downhill slope of -0.9% – and this would place the PAPI aim point at 1874ft/570m – 874ft/270m deeper than the correct visual aim point, at 1000ft/300m.

 

We commend these calculators to any and every professional civil and military pilots, even if you are not (yet) using the Jacobson Flare as your standard landing reference technique. The comparisons made available through our calculators will open your eyes – considerably – and answer every question you ever had about why your visual aim point never matched the secondary electronic slope guidance systems! Now, it can all make sense; and you can easily create your own database for future reference.

You’ll find these Aim Point calculators – and so much more – in the Jacobson Flare apps.

 

Wishing you many safe landings

 

Captain David M Jacobson FRAeS MAP

 

Would you care to experience that unsurpassed sense of accomplishment, derived from executing consistently beautiful landings, more often?

For starters, Download the FREE Jacobson Flare LITE, our no fuss/no frills introduction. Here we demonstrate, step by step, the application of the Jacobson Flare on a typical grass airstrip at Porepunkah, YPOK.

 

We invite you to browse the consistently positive comments on our Testimonials page. Many pilots, of all levels of experience, have downloaded our Apps. Read about their own experiences with the Jacobson Flare technique and the App.

Then download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare app – for iOS. You’re already possibly paying $300+/hour to hire an aeroplane: You’ll recover the cost of the app, in just ONE LESS-NEEDED CIRCUIT. Moreover, you’ll have an invaluable reference tool, throughout your entire life in aviation.

Download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare App for iOS devices now.

 

We invite you, also, to review our new, FREE companion app,

offering a convenient way of staying abreast of our latest blogs.

 

Download the Jacobson Flare NEWS App for iOS devices now.

NEW: Quick Note feature for Jacobson Flare iPad users with iOS 15.1

NEW: Quick Note feature for Jacobson Flare iPad users – with OS 15.1

Our supporters who downloaded the original versions of the Jacobson Flare App for the iPad (only) will recall a useful facility within each JF calculator. Called ‘my notes‘, it was designed to facilitate the development of a personal database by pilots, for the one-off flare calculations for each airplane type they flew and for a record of the aim point comparisons between ILS/PAPI/T-VASIS aim points and the correct visual aim point for their airplane type. (Remember, if these are the same, it is only by coincidence!)

Regrettably, our current version of the JF App cannot incorporate this feature.

However, Apple’s latest iPad-specific iPadOS 15.1 has introduced, among other developments, a facility called Quick Note which enables the taking of notes on any app or screen – including the Jacobson Flare.

In addition, images and other content can be added to each note and, when collated, can form a user-specific database for JF users, as described above, but is even more flexible. (See image below, for Apple’s note)

 

 

We have created a couple of sample Quick Notes to illustrate the benefits that can be derived.

 

 

 

Once created, the notes appear in both the Notes and Quick Notes app folders, on the iPad and in the (iCloud-linked) Notes app folder on your computer. They can also be accessed, anytime, by swiping diagonally UP and LEFT from the bottom right corner of your screen; this includes editing a particular Quick Note, or creating an additional, new Quick Note.

The Quick Note title, heading, subheading and body hierarchy is formatted through the ‘Aa‘ button, at top right of the iPad keyboard panel.

 

 

 

We think you’d find this new feature flexible, useful and a bit of fun, too!

 

Wishing you many safe landings

 

Captain David M Jacobson FRAeS MAP

 

Would you care to experience that unsurpassed sense of accomplishment, derived from executing consistently beautiful landings, more often?

For starters, Download the FREE Jacobson Flare LITE, our no fuss/no frills introduction. Here we demonstrate, step by step, the application of the Jacobson Flare on a typical grass airstrip at Porepunkah, YPOK.

 

We invite you to browse the consistently positive comments on our Testimonials page. Many pilots, of all levels of experience, have downloaded our Apps. Read about their own experiences with the Jacobson Flare technique and the App.

Then download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare app – for iOS. You’re already possibly paying $300+/hour to hire an aeroplane: You’ll recover the cost of the app, in just ONE LESS-NEEDED CIRCUIT. Moreover, you’ll have an invaluable reference tool, throughout your entire life in aviation.

Download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare App for iOS devices now.

 

We invite you, also, to review our new, FREE companion app,

offering a convenient way of staying abreast of our latest blogs.

 

Download the Jacobson Flare NEWS App for iOS devices now.

The Jacobson Flare rounds-up the loose ends

Whenever the subject of landings is discussed, the expression ‘can of worms‘ often comes into the discussion. It’s a term that loosely refers to the multitude of variable factors at play, when an approach and landing is executed. It attempts, also, to describe the challenge, the frustration and seeming impossibility to understand and to constrain these factors with consistency. A key issue is that these factors vary, individually and collectively and they present with different emphasis, on each and every single landing.

 

 

For over 100 years pilots have attempted to react and respond to each ‘worm‘, as it appears and this only adds to the dilemma. An old saying goes, “when you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s sometimes really difficult to remember that your initial aim was to drain the swamp!” Conventionally, we just keep attempting to correct our own corrections, as we stumble towards the landing, which takes only 5-6 seconds and the landing cannot be adequately mastered in 5-6 sec repetitive ‘grabs’, during a session of circuits.

And therein lies the main problem: we forgot that initial aim: ‘to drain the swamp’, or to relate back to the landing, we forgot – at least until 1985 – to research and to define the main common denominator to all landings, namely the pilot’s eye path. By understanding and then flying this predictable eye path, we can all fly a consistent and stable approach and landing in any airplane. The ‘worms‘ are still present, BUT they are ALL taken into account, without you needing to wrestle with them, one by one. They are still present, but they are constrained.

When a pilot can fully understand:

1. Where to aim, then we have a definite initial target for our eye path – aim point 1.;
2. How to aim, then we can fly a consistent eye path to that initial aim point. The approach path angle, aircraft attitude and the cockpit lower visual cut-off angle (the lowest angle you can see over the nose, ignoring any visible engine cowling) and airspeed become very much more stable, with minimal corrections required; You won’t get high and fast, or low and slow and have to make big corrections.
3. When to flare, based on a visual fix – NOT a guess of height, then the flare point becomes consistent;
4. How much to flare, by the selection an additional aim point 2, related to the runway slope (level or not), together with:
5. How fast to flare, then the classic, long-sought after exponential curved flare manoeuvre can be executed, consistently well, achieving a perfect touchdown on or just beyond the original aim point 1.

These 5 elements combine to present the Jacobson Flare as a complete approach and landing training technique for ALL fixed-wing airplanes that are flared for landing and the variables are accounted for.

Compare this with conventional techniques, where pilots are often pitching up and down chasing airspeed; and then having to make coarse throttle adjustments, in the mistaken belief that this will control the rate of descent and, therefore the path angle. These are very second-rate methods that hark back to the earliest days of aviation and they have remained unchallenged since World War 1, except for the Jacobson Flare. If they were ever valid, they are most certainly not, now, when every other subject and manoeuvre in the flight training syllabus is defined, precisely.

At an approach ground speed of, say 80 kts, a 2nm approach from 600ft will occupy just 90 seconds, with the flare itself, adding a further 5-6 seconds. That’s not a long time, each time, to ‘get the hang of it’.

It is just not possible to understand the approach and landing manoeuvres through the classic, repetitive pre- and post-flight briefings, together with 5-6 sec repetitive ‘grabs’, during a session of circuits.

The worlds’ textbooks, training manuals and YouTube clips remain silent on HOW to Land a Plane, because they are still trying to contain these ‘worms‘, while The Jacobson Flare has rounded-up ALL of the loose ends, since 1985. 

 

Wishing you many safe landings

 

Captain David M Jacobson FRAeS MAP

 

Would you care to experience that unsurpassed sense of accomplishment, derived from executing consistently beautiful landings, more often?

For starters, Download the FREE Jacobson Flare LITE, our no fuss/no frills introduction. Here we demonstrate, step by step, the application of the Jacobson Flare on a typical grass airstrip at Porepunkah, YPOK.

 

We invite you to browse the consistently positive comments on our Testimonials page. Many pilots, of all levels of experience, have downloaded our Apps. Read about their own experiences with the Jacobson Flare technique and the App.

Then download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare app – for iOS. You’re already possibly paying $300+/hour to hire an aeroplane: You’ll recover the cost of the app, in just ONE LESS-NEEDED CIRCUIT. Moreover, you’ll have an invaluable reference tool, throughout your entire life in aviation.

Download the COMPLETE Jacobson Flare App for iOS devices now.

 

We invite you, also, to review our new, FREE companion app,

offering a convenient way of staying abreast of our latest blogs.

 

Download the Jacobson Flare NEWS App for iOS devices now.