What are your tips for getting the perfect flare in infinite flight?
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Control pitch and power to get the FPV (little circle in the HUD) smoothly up to the horizon line just as wheels touch (which cancels vertical speed).
Speed (IAS) is important but you can sense the right speed also using the FPV.
1)too fast and the FPV drifts too close to the nose mark (making you force the nose down too much)
2)too slow and the FPV drops too far down from the nose mark
AND IT STOPS RESPONDING WELL TO YOU INCREASING THE PITCH (if you can’t move FPV to the horizon line, you’ll bounce)
Balance a gentle mix of power and pitch to nurse the FPV to being under your pitch control and moving in the right direction - first below the horizon transitioning to the horizon.
Some other helpful ideas people have mentioned:
1)There’s no substitute for practicing a lot.
2)Aim to keep your control input movements to a minimum (also takes practice)
3)Some instructors claim thinking in terms of the word “flare” rather than “round out” (or transition) actually slows down learning as it tends to cause overly aggressive pitch reaction.
4)Also think of pointing the FPV to the end of the runway at touchdown.
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They are basically interchangeable. You are transitioning from an approach attitude to a landing attitude by reducing speed and increasing angle of attack, as long as that’s what you are doing then what you call it really doesn’t matter much. I’ve sort of heard that GA planes round out, airliners flare, but again, that’s really splitting hairs. You fly that phase of flight different in a Cessna compared to a 777 but it doesn’t matter so much what you call it. The most important thing is to do it at the perfect altitude and to do it gently but decisively. Too late or too softly and you land hard. Too early or too abruptly and you float. Maybe round out sounds more gentle I guess, but they both refer to the same phase of flight as far as I’m aware and it’s really how you are taught to do it not what you call it that matters.
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I completely agree with this and most of what you wrote. And I think it’s important to clarify the distinction. It’s a psychological difference. I certainly learned to fly and land using the word flare to describe the action. But I’ve recently encountered some accounts of instructors claiming they get better teaching results by de-emphasising the image of flaring. So I should probably clarify I’m throwing it in as a possibly helpful concept for some: Don't Flare On Landings - MzeroA Flight Training - YouTube
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That is a good video, as is most of that channels content. It’s a great resource for aspiring pilots. I was sort of thought both of them so slightly different parts of the same thing, but it sounds like what exactly this phase of flight is called is as much instructor preference as anything else. I’m sure great pilots have learned it both ways. It does seem like round out is the preformed term at this point among instructors though.
Anyways, enough about the name, round out, flare, call it what you will, my biggest advice is timing, that’s the underrated part. In a GA plane it’s like 20 feet which I assure you feels a lot lower in real life when you are still getting used to it. I don’t honestly know how high it is in airliners but it is definitely higher which makes sense since the approach speed is higher. Whatever the numeric altitude is though the feel is what is most important, you don’t want to be staring at your altimeter as you land, not to mention that most GA planes don’t even have a radar altimeter to tell you how high you are above the runway without some mental gymnastics. The best and frankly only way to get that feel is to do it a lot. I’d look up some good guides (the one @adit linked is great) to get you the knowledge then just go do it a lot. That’s how you’ll get good at it.
I like to put my throttle down a bit and pitch up the plane as slowly and gently and make sure it touches the ground softly then pitch down the nose slowly.
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