Originally Posted by
Ewfflyer
I know, crazy isn't it!?!?!?!
My experience in the last few years dealing with our customers, whom are owner/pilots, is that about 75% of them carry 5-10+ kts extra on final than they should. I have yet to see a good and justifiable reason for it. I just like short landings also. It's really bad when they get in the turbo-props, because they feel they can do it because now you have the magic "reverse" option.
Bingo! I've flown with a bunch of people who are afraid of the short field approach speed... The reference speeds are there for a reason, few cases (gusts, etc) do people need to carry more airspeed. One suggestion for the OP is generally with a 172 a heavy landing is softer with a more shallow approach and keep the nose down a bit in the ground effect and smoothly, slowly increase back pressure until the mains touch the ground. The idea here is to slow your descent rate without losing too much energy, and slowly bleed the energy without increasing descent rate too much.