captain-david-jacobson

Were you just taught to land? … or were you taught HOW to land?

Many of us are familiar with the adage that ‘it is more valuable to teach someone HOW to fish, than to simply buy them one’. 

There is quite a difference: One is momentary – the other is forever. Landing training is similar.

‘Just taught to land’

Historically, instruction in determining a suitable and consistent landing flare height for each airplane type has been more an art passed on to an apprentice than the formal teaching of a technical skill. Pilots then attempt to recognise and recycle that flare height, consistently, by familiarity and repetition.

The student is expected to remember and reproduce this flawed height estimation, often at another airfield where the visual cues are always different and are offered no alternative: Trial and error have been the arbiters in advancing the soundness of this developing judgement.

Unfortunately, even after the basic skills have been mastered, the same fundamental problem exists because every airplane type requires a different flare height. When needed most – effectively, all the time – an accurate and universal flare model had never been available. After being endorsed on a new airplane type, experienced pilots generally consolidate their assessment of flare-height *. Although subject to the same issues, they become comfortable with the ‘feel’ of their new airplane after some indeterminate time and land it as well as any flown previously – if inconsistently; clearly so, for this method has been accepted and practised for a very long time; in fact, since the end of World War One, in 1918.

(* Even the concept of a ‘flare height’ is flawed mathematically, for every error in judging/estimating/guessing this vertical height compounds by approximately twenty (20) times longitudinally, along the runway.)

It is what is meant, here, by being ‘just taught to land’ by imitating and replicating our instructors’ demonstrations. It is worth keeping in mind that that is how they were taught, too!

‘Being taught HOW to land’

The distinction is very simple: Were you ever encouraged to consider the following five questions and research their answers?

1. Where to aim?  (your eyes at a nominated aim point on the runway, suitable for the aircraft type)
2. How to aim?  (using the controls correctly to fly a consistent, stabilised approach path)
3. When to flare?  (using a simple visual fix to locate an accurate flare point – rather than guessing an elusive and flawed* flare height)
4. How much to flare?  (utilising a second aim point, together with:
5. How fast to flare?  (a simple means of developing the perfect flare – an exponential curved eye- and flightpath that we have all been trying – with mixed results – to emulate through judgment, repetition and feel).

The simple explanations and solutions for these five questions – on HOW to apply this technique to ANY fixed-wing airplane on ANY airstrip or runway – and much more – are described in the comprehensive 345-page Jacobson Flare App.

You will then understand the difference between being taught to land and being taught HOW to land.

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.

35th Anniversary of the First Publication of the Jacobson Flare

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.