what is the secret to a good flare?

[Guest byoungblood]

Unless you're making a short field landing, the idea should be to round out from the descent to a fairly level attitude, then allow the airplane to settle, and apply more up elevator gradually to ensure you don't land flat. I think most people make the mistake of flaring too quickly, which leads to the aircraft ballooning. Just give it a few seconds to settle down and bleed off some airspeed before bringing the nose up any.

[ESzczesniak 128]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this, but a key point for the flare is to remember this is a visual manuever. You should never know what your TD rate or airspeed is unless you're getting it from an ACARS or similar program after landing (not to say that these aren't important aspects of a safe landing though). Once you reach decision height (and often higher if your are VMC), you're eyes should be focused outside the cockpit. This is how you get used to how things should look at the threshold, at the start of the flare, at touchdown and so on. Then you will just naturally judge the right time to flare.I've always been taught throughout flight training that you want to fly visually whenever possible. Now of course, you back this up with instruments even in perfect visibility. So if I'm flying a visual approach, the track of the plane would look no different than flying an ILS because I'm essentially flying both, checking that I'm on ILS LOC and G/S every few seconds. The big difference is that in VMC I'll take my attitude indications from the horizon while in IMC i'll take it from the PFD/ADI/appropriate instrument. By it's nature, IMC is much more of a flying by the numbers exercise, which isn't bad but is an easy way to get disorientated and get behind the jet. By the flare you MUST be either visual on the runway or flying an approved CAT III autoland and then George or whatever name you give the AFD is the one worrying about the flare.

[SAS263 1]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this, but a key point for the flare is to remember this is a visual manuever.

Agree with that one. I

[gman! 1]

In real life, you do not follow the glideslope and the PAPI down to touchdown usually (During an ILS Approach). If they did, landings in planes would be very hard B). You want to follow the glideslope until you reach the threshold of the runway and then you can take it from there. I am doing work right now so I will give you only a bit of help. On approach depending on your payload, fuel, and aircraft you want to come in at the correct speed (VREF) + 5 knots. At DH (Decision Height) or usually called "Minimums" which is at 200FT AGL usually, you want to determine if its safe to land or if you need to execute a go around. Usually, if the pilot is too high above the glide slope he/she will do a Go around. If you are OK at DH then fly the aircraft down to the threshold of the runway and then after that ignore the glideslope and PAPI. Pitch up 5 degrees gently and retard the throttles slowly to VREF, this will "fly" the airliner down to the runway. The localizer is very helpful for landing the plane so you usually do not want to ignore it unless it is off in FS, it will help you land on the centerline of the runway.When visibility is low, I would let the autopilot fly the approach, that way you can scan outside and see if you can get the runway in sight, except for when you are doing an autoland in CATIII conditions.If you want to do things as close as you can to real life. Then in bad weather conditions with lots of precipitation at the airfield, land firmly. In real life this will give you a greater chance of contacting the runway surface instead of contacting the water and hydroplaning which can reduce braking power or make them ineffective. Maybe when Airsimmer comes out with their A320 you'll be able to simulate hydroplaning, because they said that weather will affect the brakes :(.Almost forgot! I highly recommend downloading the freeware programs FSCopilot and FSInn. They add lots of extras to FSX which will help improve your flying and how well you simulate your flights. The software is freeware and when you install both, you will get an option somewhere in the "Inn Control Panel" sub menu to turn on altitude callouts which work for every plane, and increase realism and help landing very much, They are Boeing callouts though.Download: http://www.mcdu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4363This also the software people use to connect to VATSIM on FSX and FS2004. I prefer much more over SquawkBox 4 if you have heard about it, because FSInn has many more advance features and it choses the aircraft to represent when you fly online, unlike squawkbox 4 where you have to choose every single plane when you fly on VATSIM. Another great feature is its pushback option. Unlike the default FSX pushback, this will let you enter the number of meters you would like to pushback, and the number of degrees you want to turn (left or right), so instead of only being able to go 90 degress left or right, you have the whole 360 degrees, and it will give you a visual aid to give you an estimate of where the position of the aircraft will be :(. So try it out sometime and see, and have safe flights and happy landings. :(BTW, someone said in bad weather conditions, or approach (i forgot) just look at the instruments and don't take your eyes off the MFD, PFD, etc. This is the UNSAFEST thing to do in real life. You have to scan for traffic in good weather and especially in bad, because you never know if an aircraft is going to be approaching a parallel runway and if they will be off the localizer. There is a technique in real life taught to commercial transport pilots, to help them monitor outside and also check instruments. The workload is usually split between pilots though, which reminds me. If you fly FSX online and want to have a copilot, share your cockpit (with a password, so no one hijacks it), and do what they do in real life. Have one pilot monitor the altitude, glideslope, localizer, and speed, and check outside every once in a while on approach (usually the copilot) if they have a microphone, they can talk to you without pressing the transmit button, so have them shout out altitudes like "50, 30, 10" and call out speeds like "80 knots, 60 knots, reversers in", etc. Have one pilot mainly focus outside the cockpit and check speed and precision approach once every few seconds to make corrections (usually the pilot.) This will increase realism and increase safety for your virtual passengers, ensuring many accident free flights :). After all... you don't want the virtual FAA taking away your CPL (Commercial Pilots License).... :(

[ESzczesniak 128]

gman makes good points, but I'd note that your approach speed requires Vref + 5 + wind correction. You cannot count on all that wind to be steady all the way to touchdown. Typically you correct with 1/2 steady wind speed + full gust excess just in case the wind suddenly calms down and you loose this speed over your wings.Depending on the aircaft you're flying, CAT II or III ILS may actually require autoland to be used.

[WarpD 824]

Quality magnesium. :(