no where in the initial question does it say anything about "slamming" a plane on the runway.....just landing at high speed. now, this thread using the word, "slam", has a life of its own.

from the answers so far, i doubt anyone understands why an aircraft can fly.

also, where do these comments about drunken pilots come from? if you truly think that pilots are all boozers, i suggest you take the train.

Its the buzz around the statement by the Minister for C Aviation stating that some 24 pilots failed the alcohol test in the past year. See the DUI thread in this forum.

Correct, and some of them do not have a clue and have *zero* awareness of their surroundings on the ground - I am truly scared that some of them will soon be in the cockpit!

Don't know if this is the point you are making, but may be an interesting counterpoint: I met about 2 Swedish 9w pilots flying domestically, and 1 flying the Airbus A332 internationally, when he was deadheading in India.

I would consider the SAS flying style as more (Danish) efficiency, rather than comfort, and I have *full* trust in their flying abilities...

Ahhhh - now we are coming to the point of the matter here!

This is *exactly* the type of incident I pointed out to Jet - more on this later, in response to Oliver's post...

PS: Anyone around in the SK CPH lounge this afternoon???

Most airlines around the world do teach a "firm" landing especially in wet weather to ensure deployment of reverse thrust, spoilers, autobrake, but the Indian fondness for a slam-dunk does seem a bit high.....

How much of this is happening because a large percentage of 737/A320 Capts in Jet/KF/Spice/Indigo etc have fewer hours than the avg First officer in a US regional airline?

Also many of them have gone from 200hrs of training in Florida, to the right seat of a mid-sized airplane. Hand-flying skills are not developed, and the flight ops dept of most of these airlines prescribe the use of automatics as far as possible to avoid problems - and this perpetuates the issues. However, landings (or approaches once below 200ft AGL) have to be handflown and this exposes some of the issues.

This is purely anecdotal and can perhaps be ignored as a one-off - but I was in KUL airport recently standing next to two 9W pilots (a young captain and a similarly aged female co-pilot) who were discussing their landing a few minutes ago and how hard it was to get the "nose aligned" at the gate. Hearing them talk, although I know squat about aviation, would give me zero confidence in taking a 9W flight. I thanked my stars that I had just arrived on a SQ flight!

Some interesting reading about working in india (by pilots BTW, not SLF like us): http://www.pprune.org/interviews-job...ing-india.html

http://www.pprune.org/south-asia-far...formation.html

Hot landings? IAS?
 

Hot landings? Are you sure? Did you get a look at the airspeed indicator? Any idea of what the indicated airspeed was? Any idea what the approach speed was that was supposed to be flown on those hot landings?

A passenger's seat-of-the-pants guess at speed can't be very accurate....

Need to bust out the GPS next time for the landings.

I rest my case, based on the 2 posts above.

Do you really think that we have absolutely no clue?? What planet are you on?

How did I get the head of pilot training to agree with me and after 1 week all landings were modified...

Exactly - we should do this...would like to know how and what equipment would be able to record such data, and subsquently interpret it. Note that we would have to have better than normal GPS accuracy, which might have to be enhanced with RF, which is not allowed on board during flight, so this testing might be moot.

I've flown enough that I can feel when a plane is coming down faster or slower. When you are in a car doing 75 on an interstate, you can tell the difference compared to doing 25 through a residential zone. Perhaps you're getting defensive as an Indian pilot? Care to expand on this? We'd love your input if you've got more insight! :)

Counting to 1 -- if that -- is so hard. :D

The smoothest flight -- and that includes the take-off and landing -- that I have ever had on my flights from anywhere to anywhere inside or beyond India was on an old-school VIP plane in the IAF fleet. Yes, it was military-trained IAF crew that provided the very smoothest of landings.

May be we should pass this on to the top brass of airline.

Which one?

I have already done my part and actually *changed* things...

Hi,

Conferred with a pilot of a to-remain-unnamed carrier (not in India), and was told that the priority is to get her down at the touch-down zone a little beyond the piano keys and not much farther off rather than to achieve a smooth as possible landing for the comfort of the pax.

At an airport where I regularly fly (as pax) in to, I have come to know if a plane is hovering too long over the runway and happens mostly in the case of foreign carriers (notice this even during spotting). Home-based pilots usually have her down around about the touch-down zone.

So I will go out on a limb to suggest the possibility that the landings feel harder because the pilot flying has realised that he has gone too far down the runway (not enough flare?) and needs to get down NOW or go-around, thus resulting in a harder than normal landing. If the PF is a right-seater fresh from school, I expect that to be the case more often.

SuperFlyBoy, do you concur?