Hello, Guys!

 

I don't know is it the correct forum to post this Question.

 

I've some questions about Flare of an Airplane. I hope experts and pilots will answer and don't say me to Fly Cessna. 

 

I can just do request. Ahead, experts and pilots know better.

 

1- When to Flare the plane? Means when to decide, now it's a good time to Flare and land. Where at runway? at >>>>> sign? OR at Threshold OR at 9R etc.. OR behind all these?

 

2- How much height should be of the plane when pilots Flare and land smoothly?

 

3- How pilots in cockpit judge that now we need to Nose Up and how they know now "tires are going to touch the surface after a while"? and "now tires have touched down"?. Because they remain in cockpit and they don't see outer.

 

4- I Flare B747 in FSX and sometimes good and sometimes not good. I flare the plane by my own idea which sometimes gets successful and sometime not.

 

These are the questions and I request to experts and pilots to please answer me.

 

Regards,

 

AP,

Practice. Every pane is different. Your 3 stories off the ground in a 747 compared to 4 ft in a 172.

Not trying to gatecrash your reply, but just so that the OP is quite clear what you mean, it's '3 storeys off the........'

mmmm.....  depending on type of plane....  5 - 50 ft from the ground

Not to mention FSX is very poor at simulating ground effects.

Didn't the op ask this same exactly question before?

:Sigh:   4 or 5 feet off the ground if you want to splay the gear or push it up thru the wings.  Or in the case of FSX w/ crash detection off... bounce back into the air.

 

For GA (General Aviation) aircraft like your Piper or Cessna trainer... roughly 15-20 feet or so.  Typically for the PMDG 747 I start the "landing transition" (which one could call a flare) at around 30 feet RA or so.  So it depends on the size of the aircraft... also your rate of descent.

 

It - i.e. "breaking the glide" - needs to been done gradually... as I am sure you know if done too fast you will "balloon"... too slow and you bang it in.

 

For each type aircraft you fly it will be different.  And judging height w/o radar altimeter callouts becomes a matter of experience of judging height and timing.  Judgment still necessary on rate of transition tho.

 

Two Key Elements are being On Airspeed and On Glidepath... you aren't looking for a position over the runway (like the numbers).  You are judging the height based on experience with that plane (save something with a Radar Altimeter / Callouts).  That is one reason why it takes a while to cut students loose for solo.  They have to get the right sight picture in their head... the right visual clues when break the glide and how fast etc.

 

When visual, you pick a point on the runway and stick it in the windscreen and keep it there until ready to transition to the Landing Attitude.

 

In the PMDG 747... you fly it in, make the landing transition to a slightly nose high attitude and let the plane settle in on it's own. 

 

Steve Bell (AVSIM nick "G-CIVA") has written some outstanding stuff on the 747... do a search here because I know he has posted several times about specifically what to do.

 

The biggest thing you can do is practice over and over and over. Like for the 747 (not that I would start with that plane - I suppose you can tho)... listen to what Steve says and do it over and over and over.

I recommend flying some rounds doing touch and goes in the pattern, after a few attempts you should be getting a pretty good feel for the aircraft you are flying. The exact altitude does of course vary from plane to plane.

Or use this handy little tool called Lord of the Landing:

 

http://planeman-fs.blogspot.de/2012/05/lord-of-landing-v17.html

 

it positions you on short final of any airpot you want and gives you a detailed evaluation of your landings (flare distance, vertical speed, etc) 

 

You can also just use it alongside your normal flights, when you´re leaving the runway you get the landing report. Helped me quite a lot and I never fly without it.

I don't know about a general roule. But what I do in real word flying is to flare to reduce the vertical and horizontal touch down speed and to make it a good experience also. After all I am not landing on a carrier. Highwing is a bit different from a low wing plane. But both fly with a lower airspeed when being in the groundeffect. That is on small planes pretty much a wingspan distance from to above the runway. Doing the flare above that altitude would mean coming close to touch down being close to stall speed and then descending into the groundeffect. Being in there would mean to have a slower stallspeed than some feet higher and so continuing to fly than to touch down, that's pretty much what the groundeffect is doing.

 

So flaring too high means being above the runway not touching down eating up runwaylength.

 

Doing it twice, above and in the groundeffect, would make no sense during a normal landing.

 

So here is what I do on normal flight conditions: flying the plane with a stabilized approach to the runway beginning, if not already on idle, then applying idle power, descending into groundeffekt, yoke backwards, "holding, holding,holding..." and the touch down. Depending on the runway holding front wheel up, saving therefore on the brakes, then applying only brakes if necessary.

 

Different on warm day, crosswind landings, high altitude landings, where I use power to kill the sinkrate, less elevator use. Whatever feels more safe and is good for keeping steering control is in use.

 

What I learned concerning heavier planes, the flare gets less important compared to planes below 2 tones.

 

I worked two weeks in Cambridge Bay on float planes, that was flaring as long and as smooth as possible. Sinkrate a bit too much and the plane would bounce back into the air again.

 

So I would say concerning my way of flying, start flare when in the groundeffect, that being roughly one wingspan distance from the ground.

 

Hope that helps a bit.

 

Manfred

Or use this handy little tool called Lord of the Landing:

 

http://planeman-fs.blogspot.de/2012/05/lord-of-landing-v17.html

 

it positions you on short final of any airpot you want and gives you a detailed evaluation of your landings (flare distance, vertical speed, etc) 

 

You can also just use it alongside your normal flights, when you´re leaving the runway you get the landing report. Helped me quite a lot and I never fly without it.

This thing has helped me so much, I have saved  a bunch of money on my flight training because I can set this up nice and easy and practice at home. Thank you for making this