"Mitty" wrote in message
...
I am learning to fly a Blanik L-23 and my instructor is telling me to "fly
it on" with no flare.

1) I am commercial/instrument rated with somewhere north of 1000 ASEL and
a few ASES landings in my logbook. I am _programmed_ to flare. :-) To
not flare is very hard for me.

2) The Blanik AFM refers to flaring on landing.

3) The instructor is very concerned about the fragility of the tail wheel,
so possibly this is the reason for his technique.

So ... to flare or not? When solo, I mean.

BTW, this is pretty neat stuff. I wish my first few hours of training had
been in a glider. Certainly I would have learned to use the rudder much
sooner!

Almost every aircraft will have its own "best" runway contact attitude. The
L-23 works best with a "wheel" landing in which the fragile tailwheel
doesn't touch down until the glider has slowed its rollout considerably.
Your instructor has the right idea.

In the case of most gliders and the L-23 in particular, 'flare' means to
simply arrest the decent so the glider is skimming along just above the
runway in level flight while losing airspeed. As airspeed is lost, the nose
must be raised (AOA increased) to maintain height a few inches above the
runway surface. The runway contact attitude (and the touchdown airspeed) is
determined by how much the nose is raised before the wheel is allowed to
touch the runway surface.

In the case of the L-23, this isn't much. To get a picture of this
attitude, strap in and have someone lift the tailwheel a few inches above
the runway. Don't raise the nose more than this before allowing the main
wheel to touch down.


Bill Daniels