Originally Posted by
atpcliff
Hi!
"It's a military thing.
Military pilots are alway trying to make every landing perfect"
I flew a bunch with an A-10 guy, who had a very interesting opinion. He was also a UAL guy, and we were talking about the "who can land better" thing. He said in A-10s, there was no "good" or "better" or "smooth" landing. He said, in the A-10, they would land. You either land, or you don't land.
He explained that a "good" landing was about 83 items down the list in priority of what was important. They had all kinds of other stuff that was more important. If you landed, and could taxi in to your spot, it was good. If you had to eject, or you crashed, it was bad.
My goal, is to land after every takeoff. So far, I am 100%, and I try my best to keep it that way.
cliff
NBO
Your A10 buddy might think any landing is a good one, but he doesn`t have a plane full of folks that really don`t want to be there and are not that enthused about flying. A professional pilot should try and make every flight as event free as possible. This means a smooth landing if possible. If a wind check helps doing this, so much the better. On the carrier, I would sometimes peg the G meter both ways. That was then, this is now. Well, my "now" is trying to keep from falling out of my Barco Lounger.