what makes a good landing?

In order to curb my anxiety on our flight home the other day, I drank two beers...it sure did work!

I had a couple sips left in my plastic cup when we landed...there was a bounce with the landing which made the beer spill out on my pants.  Bad landing to me...

...or maybe that was my punishment for not having everything secured for the landing? 

In all actuality, the landing was fine.  I was buzzed, so nothing mattered to me.  There was fog, so the guys up front may have had to work extra hard...but, we were on a new-gen, so maybe the plane landed itself? Don't planes land themselves these days? Don't pilots just punch in a couple coordinates into some fancy-schmancy electronic thing, and then sit back and relax up front until the plane parks itself at the next gate? 


Anyway...I have mentioned before that Steve never talks shop much with me.  But, put him in the company of a good friend who is also a pilot (and an engineer), and I finally get to hear things.

Steve got on the topic, at one point, about landings. 

He was commenting that there are times when he fucks up a landing pretty good, yet a passenger will remark "nice landing" when deplaning.  

Then, there are times when he nails a landing, and a passenger will remark "woah, sure did bounce on that one, huh." I think these are the comments that Steve wants to either roll his eyes at a passenger, or sock 'em one good. 

Keep in mind that I had a couple margaritas in me when we were having this conversation, but I do remember something about a good landing is when you hit the center line in the touch down zone...blah, blah, blah...and then this is where things get fuzzy.  Plus, Steve can get funny when he is drinking so we were all probably laughing pretty hard at this point. 

I have said it before,and I will say it again, I am not a pilot.  I am not going to pretend to know anything about flying a plane, or landing a plane.  I will leave that up to the pros.  I won't even try to explain what a good landing is to a pilot.  All I can say is that a lot goes into a good landing.  Believe me. 

In my world, a plane that lands and then taxis to the gate is a good landing to me.  With my anxiety, I am happy to have those wheels on the ground.  Sure it may bounce or whatever, but as long as I walk off the plane to a jet-bridge I am good.