I remember distinctly discovering the secret of obtaining a super-smooth landing in a PA-28; just carry extra speed and “drive it on.” Eliminating the flare made landing amazingly simple – why had my CFI not figured this out? This occurred during the solo cross country phase of my flight training (50 years ago) after suffering through the usual first solo commands – “hold it off, don’t let it land!” Needless to say, my instructor disagreed with my new “smooth landing” technique and righteously explained, that a smooth landing was not the objective, safety was. Extra energy on touchdown and the three-point attitude were, he said, an invitation to disaster (something about square root functions and porpoising).
You may be surprised to learn that “smooth touchdown” is nowhere to be found in the FAA test standards (the closest is “minimum sink rate” in the soft field section). The more important objectives of a good landing are clearly described: an accurate touch down on the centerline (aligned with no lateral drift) and properly configured and stabilized. Also, arrive as slow as possible touching in the “landing configuration.” For a pilot, “smooth” is a reward, but not the sine qua non. Make your landings proper and safe first and after some practice, “smooth” will be easily achievable. Many smooth landings are actually not safe at all.
But of course, it’s the *passengers* who disagree. The *only* tangible non-pilot standard to judge piloting skill is a super-smooth touchdown. Pilots really need to push back here and get over this imposed illusion for the sake of safety! Smooth landings can often involve extra speed and improper technique. It is much safer to stabilize, control the centerline and land in the proper attitude, even if it touches with a little bump.
The “smooth landing mandate” naturally carries onward into professional jet operations – something about “primacy?” We all want to be the “hero pilot,” and it’s easy to consume a mile of runway milking the last few feet to touchdown in search of the “super-smooth” arrival. You will indeed impress their clients in back when you run off the end of the runway? Not surprisingly, overruns on landing are the #1 cause of accidents in turbine aircraft.
Whether trying to minimize the “bump” felt by passengers or lulled by landing often on runways much longer than needed, business aviators tend to carry excess speed and float into long landings. The average business jet touch down point is about 1,600 feet from the threshold, and nearly 20 percent touch down beyond 2,000 feet, well past the aim point that is the basis for predicted aircraft landing performance
Admittedly, there are a variety of causes of overruns in turbine landings, most notably the extreme weight and energy at play and contaminated surfaces. But ironically, the solution to hydroplaning is actually a “firm touchdown” to create positive contact with the runway surface.
And to be very clear, I am not condoning (or recommending) hard landings. I am just advocating for less of a focus on “super-soft” touchdowns as an end in themselves. Go for “safe” first (as described above) and smooth will follow after some practice. Fly safely out there (and often)!
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SAFE member Dean Brown is a committed educator – Indy Center Controller and CFI – working to improve both controller training about emergencies and pilot understanding of how ATC can best help during emergencies. The correct initial (and continuing) response is critical to a successful outcome during emergencies. Frequently, a controller lacks a full understanding of how busy and disorienting emergencies can be for a pilot. Dean is working on rolling out a comprehensive training course for controllers covering a wide variety of emergency situations. If you have suggestions or are a controller wanting to collaborate in this important work, reply in the comment section please (we will get in touch). Fly safe out there (and often)!
In full disclosure, I’m really new to the world of aircraft that have a lighter empty weight than my motorcycle. And I’m used to having at least a couple of seats behind me. I recently had the opportunity to join a small group of pilots – those that have flown electric airplanes!
The reasonable “sounding board” of a trusted advisor is a sure way to add safety to any decision and one reason Part 135 and 121 usually require two pilots. So if it’s a tight decision, expand your resources and solicit some advice from a trusted pilot friend. A worthy motto, borrowed from 
But if you are not near a charted airport in the backcountry, you could easily be sanctioned if what you are doing looks like a “buzz job” (and it will stick). This current interpretation is a problem for a pilot assessing a landing site with the (
There are more good comments on the 
Thanks to all that visited the 
As it turns out the data shows that pilots actually become MORE likely to have an accident with experience at least to a point. It requires several hundred flight hours before that risk goes down. In 2015 the FAA published a paper titled 
The author acknowledges the far right side of the graph above is probably inaccurate due to the small number of pilots with high hours in the FAA database. But the overall message is clear. Pilots get more dangerous with experience before they get less dangerous. How can that be? The FAA paper does not attempt to answer but I have a theory. And it has to do with us humans and our perceived skill vs actual skill. There is a psychological phenomenon called the Dunning-Kruger effect. Psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger found that people who scored the lowest on tests of learned ability like logical reasoning, grammar and a sense of humor had the most inflated opinions of their skills. In a sense when we lack the knowledge and skills to achieve excellence, we also lack the knowledge and skills to judge excellence.
During a recent airplane owners’ gathering in Florida, I did a 
base to final phase of flight. A timid pilot’s brain is saying “danger: low and slow, don’t bank too much” due to gross misunderstanding of the real threat. The third problem with timid piloting adds more “airspeed buffer” and flies way too fast in the pattern. This leads to being unable to slow down and stabilize the final approach for a normal landing. All the accumulated energy gained through 