A complete set of major flares has been used to investigate the effect of the heliospheric current sheet on the magnitude of the flare-associated disturbance measured at the earth. It was found that disturbances associated with flares located on the same side of the current sheet as the earth were of larger magnitude than those associated with flares located such that the flare-accelerated material would have to cross the current sheet locus. It was also found that the angular separation between the flare position and the earth has a strong effect on the magnitude of the disturbance. A larger angular separation tended to result in a smaller disturbance. Third, it was determined that flares tend to occur near the heliospheric current sheet.