Originally Posted by
JimInOhio
I heard a story some time back where a hard landing on a check ride resulted in UA and/or Boeing making a significant change in the simulator software. Apparently, the conditions creating the real life hard landing were not adequately accounted for in the simulator.
my brother is a retired 767 captain. He gave me these thoughts on what might’ve happened.
767 jets are prone to hard landings when a new/unskilled pilot is at the controls. I’ve had a few hard landings myself, but never bent metal.
On the other hand, once you know and learn to understand what the jet is telling you via good old fashioned “seat of the pants” flying, landings as “smooth as glass” are easily obtainable. Once that skill is mastered, easy-peasy.
Problem is, that subtle skill can’t be taught in ground school and can’t be learned in the simulator. It can only learned by experience.
I question the experience and skill of the line-check captain, who is there to specifically train newbies on the jet. Every model of jet has its own subtle personality (early 767-200’s were notorious for hard landings…. We called the -200, the “truck”), and it’s the LCA’s responsibility to impart that knowledge and skill that only experience can teach.
The LCA in this case should have seen this coming, and intervened. Perhaps he tried, but let the problem go too far before acting. Part of teaching aviation skills is to let the newbie make some mistakes so that he learns by experience. This mistake was allowed to go too far.