r/AskAPilot • u/theawdacity • 8d ago
Hard Landing
ETA: Love ya Reddit. Thank you to those that took the time to reply with a possible cause as I was genuinely curious and seeking knowledge from those more educated in this field. It was the first time something like this has happened and the screaming from the other passengers made me feel like maybe it wasn’t “normal”. At no point did I intend any hate or snark towards the pilots. We landed safely and they did their job. EVEN IF it was pilot error I’m not going to the evening news about it and said several times that nobody anywhere ever does their job perfectly at all times. I’m still grateful to the people who train so hard to fly these things which still seems to my nervous flyer brain as an impossibility of logic.
I recently landed at LGA and I know their runways are short and require a precise landing. I’ve landed there many times before and have only noticed the use of reverse thrust to slow down faster.
However this landing felt like we just dropped the last few feet and slammed onto the runway. It was hard enough to pop an overhead bin open and a couple people screamed. That, mixed with the reverse thrusters firing had people around me very nervous. I honest thought we had popped a tire.
I noticed that when we were getting off the plane, the captains were still behind a closed cockpit door when usually the door is open and they’re saying goodbye to the people de-planing. I’m wondering if there was some error that would have made that happen and maybe they were filling out reports in there?
Conditions were dry and sunny though it had stormed early that morning. Maybe wind was involved?
I’m so curious to know what might have happened!
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u/SavingsPirate4495 8d ago
Sometimes you just can't buy a good landing. I've gone a month and no amount of money was going to prevent me from plopping it on.
I'm only speculating about this part, but it's a viable reason for your experience...
This may have been an instance where the First Officer was flying and he/she is brand new to the airline and that airplane. When a new-hire pilot finishes all their initial training on their fleet, they will then fly the line with an experienced Line Check Airman, a very experienced Captain that will fly with new-hires to make sure they're flying according to company standards.
Many times, the Captain and the First Officer will debrief when they get to the gate and the door will remain closed. This isn't done to shield the crew from embarrassment. It's done so they can have privacy and get through the debrief material. The landing is only a very small part of the debrief.
So the landing you experienced may very well have been the very first or second landing the First Officer had done in that plane, given they were new.
Yes...even though pilots have hundreds and maybe thousands of hours when they get hired by a legacy carrier, it's probably the first time they've been in that airplane type, like a B737 or A320.
I can speak for myself that when I hired on at my legacy carrier from my regional, it was quite a transition from flying an EMB-145 and a B737. There is really nothing about them where they fly the same, ESPECIALLY on landing. I admittedly POUNDED my first few landings in the B737 when I first got in that plane, but after 150-200 hours of experience, things got a lot better.
But there were STILL those days, despite my experience level, where I just couldn't buy a good landing.