The Importance of a good Landing
In Europe I was always told during training that the landing was not important and gave no bearing or indication of how I rated as a Pilot, a firm Landing was a "Boeing Landing" and was perfectly safe, "any Landing you could walk away from was a good landing", "if you can use the aircraft again even better".
After a spate of landing accidents, has the view of the importance of a good smooth landing changed (other than its importance to ones ego). Having worked in the US, China and the middle east; my view has changed, generally in these parts of the world the landing is considered to be an accurate indication of the ability of a Pilot to handle an aircraft well. Whilst everybody makes the occasional "firm landing" i.e. 1.5g+. In the past I've worked with pilots who never make anything other than firm landings. These days the automatics are engaged from 1000' up to 1000' down, the only handling required is the landing, we must be able to do that well. It can not be good for passenger confidence or the long term health of the aircraft to experience 1.5g landings repetitively. In addition to that we can see from the latest list of accidents that it bears directly to safety.