Jim Bynum (not to be confused with our Leo Bynum) posted a question about landing technique to the Hang Gliding list. I thought that his question, and the responses it received, would be a good reminder to those of us (especially me!) that are suffering from the lousy-landing syndrome.
From: Jim [mailto:mijyppah@arn.net]
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 7:19 PM
To: HangGlide@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Good Landers and Bad Landers Attention
How many of you GOOD landers (okay, you not so good landers too) use the landing method of ground skimming, then slowly beginning to raise the nose of your glider up and holding it at a certain pitch that keeps you from climbing upward, and then after that point doing a hard (say in no-wind conditions) flare resulting in one of those stop-on-a-dime, no-stepper landings. Any of you that utilize this method, please reply, with as much detail as you can, to me. I want to try this approach if it really works. Thanks in advance for the help.
Jim Bynum
Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 19:47:09 -0700
From: "Frank Schwab" <FSchwab@speedchoice.com>
Subject: Good Landers and Bad Landers Attention
I wrote up how I do it several months ago, but I'll recap.
1. Get your glider trimmed so that trim is about minimum sink.
2. Come into ground effect upright and on the downtubes. Your hands should be curled into a "U", pulling towards you. Don't grab onto the downtubes with a death grip; you lose too much sensation.
3. As you slow down and bleed off speed, you will get to a point where your hands rotate from the "U" shape pulling backwards to an open palm pushing forwards. This will happen automatically if you have been flying for any length of time.
4. When you realize that your hands have transitioned from pulling to pushing, have moved from contacting the downtubes on the leading edge to contacting them on the trailing edge of the downtube, you can flare at any time you like.
5. I fly an HP-AT145, so I don't mess around with any pussy "Crescendo" technique at this point (at least in low wind conditions). I shove my hands forward and over my head. The glider rotates to about 90 degrees, and stops.
If you're unsure about this, stand around your LZ and watch landings. You will see that about 90% of the pounds committed by H-III's and above are due to flaring too late. About 10% are due to conditions. And approximately 0% are due to flaring too early. I'm not sure what that means for you, but for me it means a hell of a lot of landings could be saved if people started flaring a bit earlier.
/frank
From: Gilbert Griffith <gilbert@bright.au.com>
Date: Sat Jun 16, 2001 6:23 pm
Subject: Good Landers and Bad Landers Attention
I thought everyone did this type of landing, except a few wuffos who wallow down final at slow speed and just stop when they hit the deck. If there's no wind I always do full flare landings in the Atos now, after some lousy attempts at running on.
I've found the main tricks are to concentrate, to watch the horizon (not the ground just in front of you) and to flare hard and a mite too early rather than too late. I now flare when I reach trim speed, not stall speed.
Chainsaw.
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 14:48:28 +0200
From: "Bart Doets" <bart.doets@hetnet.nl>
Subject: Good Landers and Bad Landers Attention
Flaring at trim speed may depend on the speed of your trim speed. Besides, with an Atos (and flaps down) it's pretty uncritical. Some flexies will shoot up badly if you flare at trim (unless you use a drogue of course).
Bart
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 21:56:02 EDT
From: flymedave@aol.com
Subject: Re: Good Landers and Bad Landers Attention
Ya, I think trim setting and wing loading have a lot to do with the proper time to flare. A light pilot like me with a fast trim can really climb out. A fat boy with slow trim may be just right. Altitude and altitude density also come into play. I've found it's best to really know your bar pressure as you approach your flare point and stick to it in all conditions, light wind, no wind, down wind. There are subtle changes in timing and speed of flare for different conditions... And, some gliders just land like crap so get rid of um!