This ninth in a series of articles is taken from here:
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26379

Jim Rooney <<jim>> writes:

The following are some of the most common fallacies regarding landings,
let me explain.

First, no one should be whacking. Students or otherwise. There's a raft of
reasons it's considered semi-acceptable, but it shouldn't be. Why do hang glider pilots think that
crashing is well, ok? Not great, but it's "ok?"

Second, yup, students are given all kinds of advice when they crash, er "whack."
Oddly enough, a lot of the advice comes from pilots who can't land themselves.
Strange. Just like a lot of thermaling advice is given by people that have sunk
out. Pro tip: The guys you want to talk to are still in the air.

And yeah, when a non-student pounds in, holy crap there are so many excuses.
Now, a lot of that is face saving stuff and that's to be accepted. Calling
someone out in public is always a bad idea. They know they're struggling.
Helping them is a delicate thing. Proceed with care.

Now one of my favorites, "Practice". There's a lot of nonsense surrounding this
one.

First off, practicing bad technique just reinforces bad technique! You must
learn what to practice first! Otherwise all the practice in the world is
going to do absolutely nothing for you. What's worse is it will make things
harder!

I start every landing clinic with one simple question and I've had one person
answer it correctly, "How do you know when to flare?" If you can't answer it,
practice will do you no good.

Ok. Now. Here's something that'll blow your mind. If you can fly your glider,
you don't need to practice landings. If you're whacking, it's not due to lack of
practice, it's due to lack of technique.

See, "practice" is for things that require a "Feel for things". Good technique
does not require a "feel," it is a technique, it requires understanding and the
ability to fly your glider. You apply the technique and it works.

So, all these high time pilots that complain about not being able to practice?
Balderdash. It's not your lack of practice, it's your lack of technique. Learn
the technique and you'll be amazed, you won't have to practice.

OK. Here's the point where I gotta back this up,  cuz at this point you're
thinking I'm a loony. I used to think the same way. It sounds logical and
reasonable, it makes "sense". And it does for things that require a "feel". Like
shooting three pointers, you need a good feel to do that, and you only get that
by practicing.

But, you can fly. You spend (hopefully) lots of time in the air compared to
landing, you can setup an approach right? That's just flying right? If all you
had to do for landing was skim it in on the wheels, that would be easy right?
Well, how's landing on your feet different? Knowing when to flare.

Oh, I was telling a story to illustrate this. Now, this is not my only one, but
it's the clearest example. See, living as an instructor with instructors 24/7,
you get a pretty good view of what's what. So this "practice" idea kinda never
sat right. Then Zach showed us the truth.

Zach was a tug pilot (and good friend). (He's a regular GA CFI now.)

Zach flew a 12meter Stealth KPL, one of the notoriously most difficult to land
gliders on the planet. Stealths in general are unforgiving, and the 12mKpl is a
Whack-Oh-Matic. If your technique isn't perfect, it lets you know, in a big way.

Now Zach's the tug pilot right? He flew a hang glider once or twice a year. Now,
the conventional advice would be, hey, why don't you go do some flights on a
floater and knock off the "rust" first before trying to land the Stealth. But
Zach? He just went and grabbed the Stealth. He wasn't crazy, he would fly in
smooth air, but yep, straight to the Stealth.

One would expect, as we all did the first time, that he'd at least struggle to
land, probably have to run it out a little. Ok, the first time we expected a
power-whack.

Well, Zach comes in and not only lands well, he lands Zen. Walks over and ties
his glider down like it's nothing. He's not confused when I talk to him. He
knows how wrong everyone is and he explains how it really is.

See, Adam taught Zach to land. And he taught him the Zen technique from day 1.
It's in fact, all Zach knows.

It's not a "hard" technique, it's flying without descending. It just takes
complete faith to do it. Since Zach has done it, he knows in his bones that it
works, so he "has the faith" if you will.

All the landing techniques are this way. This is just my extreme example that I
like to blow people's minds with. Learn the technique. It's not about
"practice."