I'll have to get my apologies in first for hijacking this thread - it's a shame we can't branch off this section into 'Tech Log'.
I find this sort of discussion fascinating because normally pilots are quite technical in their outlook, i.e. knowing the Flying Manual, checking the weight and balance to 1kg, setting Vref to within 1kt, etc. Then you start discussing landing technique and you end up with a sort of PMT: "It just does, OK!!!"
Being of an inquisitive mind, I like to understand the reasoning/logic/physics behind what we do. Not that it seems to make me any better at it but I like to anyway.
Here's a multiple choice question (tech quiz, say):
You are approaching the ground at a higher-than-optimum rate-of-descent. Do you:
a) Pull back.
b) Push forward.
c) Sit on your hands.
I hear what several of you are saying: If you try and save a bad landing by pulling back at the last minute, it makes it worse.
This is interesting from a scientific point of view because you have only done one landing, whereas to make a comparison you would have to have done two from exactly the same starting point. I suppose I am trying to say, HOW do you know it made the landing better/worse if there is nothing to COMPARE it with? WHY should it make it worse? Let's have some sines and cosines and equations of motion...
We all know every landing is different, so it doesn't wash to say "But we did XXX at YYY and thumped it in so..."
There are a lot of 'old wives tales' floating around in aviation and it's very easy to start believing in them. Especially if your Flying Instructor (God + 1) told them to you.
People will generally believe what you tell them. Especially if things
seem to work in a way consistent (on the surface) with the explanation. I reckon you could teach someone that the Rudder was the primary means of turning the aircraft and the ailerons were there to stop you wobbling all over the sky as you turned. The theory is mostly consistent with the practice but we all know it's not quite correct.
Maybe one of us should try 10 landings in the sim from a frozen position and see what happens with different control applications. This might produce some results but again, sim manufacturers are notorious for slack programming at the edges of the flight envelope.