I was on an Air NZ 744 last year that did the most smooth, gentle landing I've ever experienced on any plane. Even the cabin crew commented on it. I've been curious as to the factors that made it so notably different to any other landing. Would it have been a fluke, or was he the best pilot in the world, does SIN have better radar/long super-smooth runways etc? Even in 20-odd landings in SIN, I can't recall a smoother landing, but I also haven't been back since.
Well, you've probably experienced that 1 in 20 landing. Realistically, mostly fluke.
It has nothing to do with Singapore radar, or their runway (which is actually quite bumpy these days).
Landings are judged by cabin crew and passengers quite differently to the pilots. Whilst smoothness is the only criteria available aft of the coughpit door, it's actually near the bottom of the factors that the pilots consider makes a landing good. Smooth on a wet runway is actually poor technique, and we'd just as likely consider it a bad landing. Smooth is easy to achieve on Melbourne 16...because it slopes downhill at almost a degree. Of course, at the other end, it's uphill by that same degree, and smooth is much harder to find.
So, what do we want? Well, backing up a little, we want the approach to be stable. Speed, sink rate, aim point, drift, all under control. Touchdown should be about 1300 feet in, and on the centreline. I don't muck around trying to hold the aircraft off for that smooth touchdown, but rather I reduce the sink rate to something acceptable, and then just let it land. That puts me on the ground, with the brakes working, much sooner than holding off for the next few hundred feet hoping for a smoother touchdown. I'll still get the occasional very smooth landing, but I'd rather hit the spot, with the energy vector pointed straight down the runway.
Some aircraft are easier to land smoothly than others, and I guess some of that comes back to the way the undercarriage works. The jumbo can be planted, but mostly it goes on quite well, especially at heavy weights. The 767 on the other hand, is almost impossible to land really smoothly. The 380...well I saw a really smooth one the other day, but it wasn't me. I'm mostly happy if they can use the jet again.
At the other end of the scale, you'll occasionally get complains about a landing. Well, firstly, the vast majority of people have no idea of what really constitutes a hard landing. They are, really, really, solid. And secondly, sometimes firm is the best you can do...one complaint came after a landing in a 38 knot crosswind in Brisbane...heck I was happy that it stayed on the runway.