I was reliably informed the previous occupation of the individual who designed the Q400 gear was at a manufacturer of shopping trollies!
Hello Mr. Ferret - thanks for the reply. But before I get too far into an exchange, I probably need to ask you straight out ... are you saying that after 7 years you cannot land your A320 airplane at all; you don't make landings that are consistent; every once in a while you wind up really "planting" the airplane on the runway; or the majority of your landings are not the mythical, 'we-didn't-know-we-were-on-the-ground' kind of "greased-on" landings? I ask because the answer(s) to these kinds of questions tend to reveal the actual source of your comment. And before you ask ... No, I'm NOT "pulling your chain," or attempting to belittle or insult you. I hope you provide an honest and direct answer. I'm looking forward to your response.
AirRabbit I am not Mr. Ferret, but perhaps I can offer my view. Ithink perhaps sometimes you forget what it was like to be inexperienced. When I was released to Line training after base training in my first jet type, I could land the aircraft safely within my limitations (there were company imposed crosswind limits until a certain number of hours on type.) That is to say, I could land the aircraft safely in the touchdown zone, on centreline and speed. What I could not do until I had more experience and still cannot always do to my satisfaction is control the smoothness of the touchdown or touch down at the precise point I have nominated.
When I might say I floated, what that means is that I have either arrived in the slot with too much energy, or arrested the descent rate too aggressively or too early, and the aircraft is still flying when I want it to be on the ground. From that point, on a short runway one has to be aggressive to put the aircraft on the ground to ensure stopping performance which tends to result in an arrival, or on a longer runway you can smoothly correct your error resulting in a smoother touchdown but a longer landing roll. Floating by definition is an error in the first place, and one is not necessarily so much a passenger as trying to correct the initial error.
I think our innate perfectionism leads us to be a bit more self-deprecating about our landing than is perhaps warranted. Also, certainly in the case of the 737, the continued buggering about with the aircraft fuselage length, wing section and characteristics has left an aircraft that requires very precise handling and control, whereas the bizjets one might step up from are comparatively easy to land and do not provide much preparation for the move to larger aircraft.