What situation would the pilot tell you the landing is going to be hard with a rapid deceleration ? Never had them say that before.
Could be a number of possibilities, including response to a known malfunction, but the likeliest scenario in my mind is a short runway.
Most airliners make reasonable attempts at smooth landings to keep the passengers happy (and to impress them, for ego reasons), but when the available runway length is close enough to the computed stopping distance, you ensure it gets down at the proper time, no “floating.”
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The pilot is probably faced with a short runway. That situation could be because your flight was assigned a secondary runway or the primary has an obstruction preventing a normal rollout.
An anticipated hard landing could be due to a short runway, an obstruction in the approach flight path or a crosswind landing.
I have 2,000 hours of pic time. SEL/SEA
We were flying into Eugene. There are some winds, so I’m not sure if we used a different path.
We hit a little harder then normal and then we rapidly slowed down.
I fly a lot and this is the first time they’ve every announced it’d be a harder landing and to hold on to your items. Also to put your seat belt right. They didn’t seem overly concerned and not at all in a panic.
Yes, short runway. The west runway is likely closed temporarily.
6,000 ft is long for a small plane, but pretty short for a larger commercial aircraft.
https://aeronav.faa.gov/d-tpp/2608/00140ad.pdf#nameddest=(EUG)
Not sure when we landed on but the east would make sense. We had a much longer taxi than normal.
When I used to fly a lot I only had one pilot that made an announcement about any part of the flight. We were flying out of Jackson Hole Wyoming on a Western 737. The pilot told us while we were taxiing for takeoff that after we lift off, they would be making a pretty steep turn and they only mention it because we would be pretty close to the ground when they started the turn, I have to give him credit…had I not known, I would have been freaking out, but since I knew, it was the most awesome takeoff I have ever experienced.
The only time a pilot made an announcement about a landing issue was during the early 70s when on planes circled around an airport because there was a shortage places for flights to land. He had an announced that one. I just opened so we were. We were going to be descending a very long distance to get it if he hadn’t made that announcement, I would’ve thought the plane was crashing
Retired pilot guy here. Yes, there are a few airports with shorter than ideal runways. Midway, Wash National, John Wayne (Santa Ana), Burbank, Key West. Most Captains will make an announcement before landing but you have to be “tactful” in how you word it! After all, you always have a few PAX on every flight who are nervous flyers. “Lady’s and Gentlemen, Thanks for flying TWA. Midway airport’s runways are a little shorter than most runways so for safety we have firmer landing and use the engine reversers and brakes quite aggressively compared to long runways like Denver. So please secure your belongings and tighen your seatbelt.”
They did use reverse engine thrust. It’s funny how many people don’t listen and had their things tossed about or go tossed a bit because they weren’t using seat belts.
Honestly if they hadn’t told anyone. I doubt I would have even noticed.
I do think we almost had a collision once. We were flying into sfo. We were on the glide path. All of a sudden the pilot banks up, goes full throttle then does a hard turn, we circled back and then landed. He had to abort for some reason
We always use reverse. But we don’t use it as strong on a long runway. At 80 knots we start coming out of reverse because below that speed it kicks up debris that can get sucked into the intake of the engine which isn’t good for it.
Ahh… this was very noticeable. Normally I don’t notice it. Felt like they had some issues slowing down. I think @brobbs is right they had to use the other runway which was much shorter.
Not sure if you’ve ever flown into Eugene, but it is a tiny airport. I believe the one in Salem is longer, but it isn’t used commercially. The one in Salem is used for military aircraft as well.
That happens a lot there. There are several YouTube ATC recordings about this
This is the first time I caught it. I will admit it did freak me out a little, as you could tell something was an emergency.
It’s my understanding that SFO is a bitch because the runways are so close together
Construction is normally the issue. Not sure why but they have been doing construction on the runways for 10 years.
Have you ever landed at Juneau (JNU), Dutch Harbor (DUT), or Kodiak Is. (ADQ)?
They are all pretty challenging, but the scariest commercial jet landing I have experienced was as a passenger on a Reeve Aleutian Airlines landing at Shemya (SYA - aka Ereckson Air Station) in a 727 in a +60 knot acute crosswind.
@glasspilot How many pic hours do you have?
I’m not pilot, just an aviation geek, but it’s my understanding that the parallel runways at SFO are much closer together than most other airports. Chat GPT says that there is 750 feet between the centerlines of the runways. Combined with SFO being busy. Here’s a radio transmission of a flight that had to go around twice due to aircraft on the runway.
No,I haven’t been there but I’ve landed at many shorter runways. It’s part of the job.
With a longish runway you might add a few knots to your approach speed. You might let it “float” for a smoother landing. On a short runway you put it down in the touchdown zone (1st 1500 feet), so NO floating. Get the nosewheel on the runway, strong brakes and full reverse. Out of reverse around 80 knots but keep the brakes on hard. Pick out a taxiway and you did your job.
KC, yes SFO has close runways but it should not be a problem. At TWA (and the other majors too) our rule on all approaches (even perfect weather) was to “Tune and identify all electronic aids” (ILS or these days RNAV (GPS)). When you turn final you follow the localizer for the runway you are landing on. If you are lined up with the wrong runway your localizer will be pinned off to one side and you will know to correct.
What is funny is that this has probably happened dozens of times, but the pilots just never announced it. I have had much worse landings.