Not Yet, Not Yet, Now: The Art of Knowing When to Flare
Teaching a student pilot when to flare is as important as teaching them how to flare and is equally challenging. Students often start the flare too soon, balloon, float, or settle in with excess speed; start too late, and the landing becomes firm or flat. The instructor’s job is to turn a vague visual problem into a repeatable set of cues and corrections, using the airplane’s sight picture rather than a stopwatch or an altitude callout. The FAA emphasizes that flare cues are primarily visual and depend on how the runway and terrain appear to the pilot.
The flare is not a single pull but a transition. The Airplane Flying Handbook describes it as a slow, smooth transition from approach attitude to landing attitude, with the airplane rounding out to a path parallel to the runway. That wording matters because it frames the maneuver as a progression. Instead of telling a student to “flare now,” teach them to recognize the point at which the descent rate should be arrested, and the airplane begins to settle into ground effect.
A reliable starting point is the sight picture. As the aircraft descends on final, the runway should appear to expand more rapidly as the airplane approaches the surface. FAA guidance notes that the most useful visual cues come from changes in runway perspective, texture, and object size, with the pilot looking slightly ahead and to the side rather than fixating straight down the nose. Many instructors teach students to shift focus toward the far end of the runway as they begin the roundout. Looking at the far end of the runway makes height and pitch changes easier to sense by increasing the use of peripheral cues.
For most training airplanes, the flare usually begins only a few feet above the runway, though the exact height depends on the airplane type, approach speed, and rate of descent. A practical coaching method is to have the student identify the moment the runway “zooms” or “blossoms” in the windshield, then smoothly reduce the descent rate and hold off touchdown with small pitch inputs. If the student consistently flares too high, move the exercise to a slightly lower cue; if they flare too low, raise the cue. The goal is not memorizing a number but calibrating the student’s internal sense of height.
Instructors should also teach what not to do. If the student yanks back, the aircraft may balloon. If they relax back pressure after starting the flare, the airplane may settle hard. Good technique is a gradual increase in back pressure, with no pitch-down correction once the flare has started. A useful phrase is: “Bring it to landing attitude, then keep it there and let the airplane land when it’s ready.” That keeps the emphasis on finesse, not force. My students have reported hearing my voice in their heads after they flare, “hold it off, hold it off, hold it off, don’t let it land!” Another technique is to tell the student to level off a foot or so above the runway. This results in the student moving the flight controls as required to control the airplane, rather than performing a fixed pulling motion or setting the wrong attitude.
Finally, reinforce that a proper flare is inseparable from a stabilized approach. If airspeed is too high or the aim point is moving, the flare will be inconsistent no matter how well the student understands the sight picture. Stable speed, stable centerline control, and a consistent approach path create the conditions for a good flare. Use unstable approaches as practice for go-arounds. Instruct the student to go around at the slightest sign of an unstable approach to solidify recognition of the need to do so. Teaching a student to salvage a bad approach is negative training. Teach the approach first, then the sight picture, then the transition. That sequence helps students build a landing they can repeat instead of one they merely survive.
Download Captain Schiff’s Flare Transition Instructor Guide here: https://bit.ly/457yLdW
