Closed loop analysis of manual flare and landing

This paper describes an approach to analyzing the manual flare and landing of an airplane. The basis of this approach is a mathematical model of the flare maneuver which is derived from manual landings of both real and simulated aircraft. This flare model in turn lends itself to a linear closed loop system description of the combined pilot/vehicle. Furthermore, simple Laplace transform methods can be used to map flare performance as functions of the flare maneuver. Having this link between flare maneuver and landing performance, we can estimate the pilot's ease in achieving desired levels of landing performance. Examples of this approach will be given using the results of a STOL airplane approach and landing simulation.