You will notice that even people with alot of hours in the plane occasionally plant one, its just not that easy. Keep your head up.

and sometimes you have to plant one. I sat in the jumpseat of an AWAC CRJ landing on 26 at PHL. Man thats a short rwy! I thought we were going to die but the Capt did a sweet job and put it down in the first 500 ft (i guess you have to aim that short on that rwy). Even having flown the CRJ before that 2.5 nose down is just crazy looking from the jumpseat.

Reminds me of a landing I did with the RJ on some 5000 foot runway. I put it down firmly with very little flare and got on it to get it stopped. As we taxi in, the CA can't say anything but how great a short landing it was and how he hates it when guys float it and try to grease it on as he watches the runway disappear behind the airplane. As the pax are deplaning, one wisea** sticks his head in the cockpit and asks "Gee, you guys practicing those carrier landings?". I just looked at him and told him that on a runway this size we have 2 choices: A floater which rolls onto the runway all nice and pretty followed by an evacuation in those trees over there or a firm landing and a short walk down the airstairs.:D

I can't say enough about my IOE captains. Both were fun and taught me a ton in a short timeframe.

My first two landings on IOE were two of the nicest I had ever made in anything with wings...I should have bought a lottery ticket that day because I haven't had ONE as "bumpless" as either of those first two. :)

My first landing in the CRJ, I damn near broke off the nose wheel because I was trying to land it like the sim. The best advice my OE instructor told me was "Land it like every other airplane you have flown." Once you get over the awkward nose down approach, you get it over the runway and flare it like any other airplane. Get that power out starting at 100ft and close it at the 50ft call, hold your pitch and add a slight bank into the wind and add a slight opposite rudder. If the wind is calm or directly down the runway, you are basically screwed!:D I MUCH prefer to land it in a xwind, I seem to have success putting 1 wheel down first. Like Boiler said, it takes a few hundered hours to get it down pat. OH, and as soon as you think you got it down, it will turn and BITE you square in the rear end with a pound-on, stick shaker driven impact. Those happen to everyone, so don't worry too much about it!;)

SOunds like your IOE Captain had lots of dual given before he got hired by your airline. Maybe that is why 250 hour wonders (or even 500) shouldn't be in the right seat.... one day they grow up and become captains.

Ok, in many cases instructors get better as they get more experience, but time spent in an airplane is not a good measuring stick for their ability to fly or teach.

I have flown with guys with thousands of hours that suck, and 500 hour guys that are 5 times better. BLA BLA BLA. Rant rant. I'm done. Just had to get that out. That is all.

i disagree. military pilots are 300 hour wonders and they go to the left seat at 1000 hours, and become instructor pilots at around the 1500 hour mark. and they tend to be rock solid instructors. so you dont have to have prior instructing experience to be a good instructor in the future. you just have to know what youre doing

WHAT? The military guys Ive flow with have no concept of CRM whatsoever.
Average pilots just like any other pilot out there.

We all plant one in once in awhile - it is required to keep our Ego's in check!!

Planted the -700 in a few days ago (my fault - trying to impress a certain flight attendant LoL)...She said I certainly made an impression - so I had to reply with "yeah, in the runway!" haha...

But the real interesting part came yesterday when I had the chance to flip-flop on three legs: -200, -700, back to the -200...three landings and they were all very agreeable. Must have gotten lucky ;-)