Landing flare

The landing flare, also referred to as the round out, is a maneuver or stage during the landing of an aircraft. The flare follows the final approach phase, and precedes the touchdown and roll-out phases of landing.

In fixed-wing aircraft performing conventional landing, the flare maneuver involves the plane's nose being raised on approach to the runway, and its wings' angle of attack is increased to create a greater lift coefficient, which allows the plane to maintain sufficient lift while slowing the airspeed and rate of descent to a proper attitude, therefore setting for a softer touchdown. In the case of aircraft with tailwheel landing gears, the attitude is set for touchdown on the main (front) landing gears first. In the case of aircraft with tricycle landing gears, the attitude is set for touchdown on the main (rear) landing gears. In the case of monowheel gear-equipped gliders, the flare consists only of leveling the aircraft.

During a helicopter landing, a flare is used for reducing both vertical and horizontal speed thus allowing a near-zero-speed touchdown.

In parachuting, the flare is the part of the parachute landing fall preceding ground contact and is executed about 15 ft above ground.