Originally Posted by
freezingflyboy
Landing in Lake Chuck, LA (5000' runway) during some rain in the E145 I put it down very firmly and got on it to get stopped. As we taxi to the gate the captain says "nice landing, I hate getting seat cushion up my butt watching you guys float trying to grease it onto a short runway". So I'm feeling pretty good about my "performance" landing. As the pax deplane, I'm turned around in my seat just in case anyone wants to look past the FA at the 2 goons who actually hurled them through the air at 450mph in a 50,000lb aluminum tube. As this one guy gets off he looks up into the front office and says "you boys practicing for those carrier landings?". Before I can say a word the FA says "well the option is an evacuation and a campfire in those trees over there...so I'd say it was a pretty decent landing". Guy just mumbled and walked off
I had something similar happen in JAN about a month back. It was a night visual to 16R with a bit of a right crosswind. When we got to about 50' I caught a pretty nice gust and had to really work to put the thing on centerline without a sideload. I went ahead and put it down somewhat firmly on the upwind wheel just so I didn't lose too much airspeed and control effectiveness with all the dramatics caused by the gust.
As we taxiied in, I actually felt really good about the approach and landing. Night visual, FD off, to a runway without an IAP and landed it safely with a gusty crosswind. But of course, once the door opened nobody seemed to care about any of that. One older man stopped by, looked at me, and said "must have been an FO landing!" I was a little annoyed by that, but what really made me angry was when an older lady stopped by the FA and told her "tell the pilot he gets an F!"
Yeah, I wasn't about to have that. I said "Ma'am, I landed the plane, why don't you tell that to
me?" She kind of stammered for a minute (I don't think she thought I'd turn around), and then said "Well uhhh...the bags in the overhead weren't the only things that shifted during that landing!"
The CA turned around at that point and told her that it was blustery outside and that the landing was fine.
I held my tongue, but I really wanted to ask her when the last time she landed a jet in a crosswind was...