I've been working on a theory, and my theory is this:

Many of us came from flying passengers. Now, in that world, there is a pretty bad stigma associated with high-impact landings. You simply cannot prang one on without hundreds of witnesses, who by the way are also your customers. Therefore, you work at it all the way down, even floating a little long to make it pretty.

Here, I've flown two-week trips with people who drop it like a greasy bag of hammers every single time. They catch the three wire, shout "Take that, runway!" and turn off at the first exit.

I flew Osaka-MEM last spring, my leg, landing at night on 36R, about 460,000 pounds. I thought, tonights my night, so I disconnected the AT's at 100'(yes I briefed it), flared it like it was on rails and kissed the earth. Made the first turn off on the right side - 7000'. Captain said, "You floated too long. Next time just dump the nose."

I say that to say this: who ever heard of an MD10 or 11 running off the end of a runway (except on the go in SFS)? And how many hard landings do we rack up each year with our short field techniques?