The Two-Handed Flare

The article below is printed (in its entirety) in the current issue of
AOPA Pilot magazine. In it, Rod Machado mentions the controls being
"mechanically sticky."

It has been my experience, that the bar attached to the control yoke
which goes through a bushing in the control panel often binds as it
moves fore and aft through its entire range of travel as it might
during a landing flare. This stickiness can cause an unexpected
balloon leading to pilot induced oscillations.

As part of the Piper PA28 annual inspection lubricating the bar
attached to the control yoke with engine oils is mentioned. I have
found that this lubrication is often overlooked, and most rental
aircraft suffer to a greater of lesser extent from sticky elevator
controls as a result.

Has anyone else experienced this?


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http://www.aopa.org/members/files/pi.../ltol0509.html

License to Learn
Arms control: A case for the two-handed flare
BY ROD MACHADO (From AOPA Pilot, September 2005.)

....

The truth is that humans, like cats, find it harder to hold onto
things as they age. A hood, however, isn't one of those things.
Instead, we often struggle to sustain a grip on the ideas we once held
in our youth. For me, this involved believing that it was never proper
to flare an airplane with both hands on the yoke. Unlike my cat, I
hope, you will at least consider the following discourse without
stomping off in a huff and refusing to speak to me for days, or
longer.

Why would anyone want to flare an airplane with two hands on a typical
"wheel type" yoke instead of keeping one hand on the throttle? Ask a
handyman and often he'll profess that it gives him better control of
the landing flare, allowing a much smoother touchdown. There's a good
reason for this, too.

Let's call it the Big Bang theory. In Westerns, you always see the
hero shooting from the hip, with one hand. In reality, police officers
are taught to fire a gun with two hands on the weapon. Why? It
provides improved control and precision, and enhances the chances of
hitting what they're aiming at. These are all things I think most
pilots would be happy to have on their side when shooting for
smoother, more controlled contact with the runway.

Biomechanically, it's simply easier to apply precise changes in
elevator control pressure when you dedicate additional strength and
more nerve endings to manipulating the control yoke. Two hands also
provide better leverage. This is why many pilots opt to place both
hands on the yoke during steep turns. Using two hands also can help
overcome any binds or crimps in the yoke's gearing mechanism, a common
issue in older airplanes.

It's very important to understand that I'm speaking of using two hands
only in the flare (not the roundout), and only when the engine is at
flight idle and certainly not when the airplane is more than a foot or
so above the runway.

The fact is that some folks like to flare with two hands. Fine. Given
this preference, is there any risk that might outweigh the benefit of
more precise elevator control when one hand is moved to the throttle
and power applied during the flare? Let's see.

As a young CFI, I was adamant about my primary students keeping one
hand on the yoke and the other on the throttle during the landing
flare. I still am. This is simply good practice, given that students
may not have enough practical experience to locate the throttle by
feel or spatial memory.

On the other hand, I also insisted (long ago) that my advanced
students do the same. Most willingly complied, but a few seemed quite
insistent about using two hands to flare. When I recall the wholesome
and playful discussions inspired by my request, the phrase "over my
dead body" vaguely comes to mind (a response that, at the time, seemed
more prescient than playful).

It turned out that many of the people preferring a two-handed flare
flew larger single-engine airplanes such as the Cessna 210 and Piper
Cherokee Six. The handy use of two hands for the flare helped these
pilots manipulate elevators (yokes) with greater precision in pitch
control for any number of good reasons. Most likely, the controls were
aerodynamically heavy, mechanically sticky, or the pilot's seating
position provided for insufficient leverage on the yoke.

Unfortunately, as a young instructor I was sure that the only way to
fly an airplane was to do it the way I was taught, which didn't
involve having two hands on the wheel. For those students refusing
assimilation, I often swung the unforgiving blade of knowledge to
untether them from the notion that a two-handed flare was a safe
practice.

"What would happen during the flare if you encountered a gust, or
heaven forbid, wingtip vortices, and had to apply power immediately?"
I asked, rattling my mighty saber. ...