I may be off base but I get the feeling from reading the threads that most people place the board on the infeed table and take a full pass every time until its flat.
When I joint a board the first thing I do is eyeball it and decide where I want to start. I will routinely set the board over the cutter and remove stock from the tail end then reverse and do the same to the other end or remove stock from just the midddle then do the ends on the opposite face working the high spots until I'm able to make a full pass or two to get the whole board flat.
One very important step is to cut the board to just a little over the length you need rather than joint long boards and cut after. It's much easier to joint shorter ones and you will be able to get a better finished thickness. Not too short though as that can be dangerous. I generally rough cut an extra inch unless the yield requires that I be closer than that (say I need 2- 24" pieces out of a 49")
Steve Jenkins, McKinney, TX. 469 742-9694
Always use the word "impossible" with extreme caution