This stuff isn't really rocket science, Gents.
You pack flakes on that knife edge between being too loose to stay suspended over the bottom by pressing against the sides (it's going to swell as it absorbs moisture in smoking) and so tightly that, as it does, pipe misery ensues -- tongue bite, steam heating the bowl, condensation & the rest of it. Greed is the enemy ; scissors (to trim the extra protruding at the top) are invaluable.
This assumes that you're not "tamping" it subsequently (which you don't need to anyway), pushing it down to where you've got the bottom of the tobacco plug resting on (worse : squashed into) the bottom of the bowl, where it's going to create a soggy, steamy, foetid mess.
The ideal is attainable maybe one time out of twenty. That's no big deal. When you start sensing incipient tongue bite (which is around the same point you can feel the bowl starting to get past warm), just put it down until it's as cool to the touch as one of other other pipes is. Wanting to resume before it's ready is greed. Greed is the enemy.
This will happen especially at the beginning. Neither the char light nor the follow-up light will "set" it. Both times it will dwindle and disappear. Trying to force it to keep it going is greed. Greed is the enemy. Pipes and tobaccos are female. Take what they give you and enjoy it at its best.
Ribbon cuts (most English mixtures) are just a variation on the same theme -- keeping the tobacco up off the bottom of the bowl by enough to notice.
The easy way (because you can see what you're doing) is to gather a plug of tobac between four fingers (as you do with a flake) wide enough to stay suspended in the bowl by side pressure. Put this part way (maybe 2/3rds of the way to the bottom) in. But instead of trimming the top, hold the tamper at an angle and work the excess straight down around the circumference. It'll likely take from two to maybe four revolutions, depending on how moist the tobac is.
(All I can say here is that deliberately letting fresh, moist tobac [like GLP's] dry out some before smoking it is about like letting hot-from-the-bakery-oven glazed doughnuts sit around 'til the next day before eating them. De gustibus non diputandem maybe, but what a waste of flavor and scrumptiousness !).
Done this way, you've created the functional analogue of a cigar, but in reverse : a nice loose center with a firm pack around the periphery.
This will probably crown way up at the char light, so keep this brief, and let it settle for a minute or so before lighting it for real. It's about managing (dissipating) steam. It's always about letting steam dissipate. The heat is only consequential. Dry heat doesn't penetrate. Steam heat does. Smoking "hot" means, in practice, smoking damp.
As with the enjoyment of any other carnal pleasure, "fast & furious" is a sub-optimal approach.
Best I can do.
:face:
