Jose wrote:
Just as tornadoes are caused by mobile homes, any landing other than a
perfect squeaker is caused by the hideous heavy gravity transient.


I thought they were caused by observers.

Jose

You've got it right Jose.

John's third law of flight: "The probablility of a great landing is
inversely proportional to the square of the number of observers. A
rated pilot in the right seat is equal to a dozen people watching, a CFI
is equal to a hundred observers."

There are occasional exceptions. I once nailed three great landings in
a row during a BFR -- the kind where I flared just before I reach the
numbers, the stall horn sounded, the mains gently kissed the runway, I
gently lowered the nose and I made the first turnoff (850 feet) without
braking. After the third the instructor said "Good landings" so I asked
him "Would you believe all my landings are like that?" He then asked me
to do a short field landing over an obstacle. I paid for my smart-assed
comment with one of those 'arrivals' where I flared and stalled at what
felt like ten feet above the runway.

So I recommend (1) pretending that nobody is watching, and (2) not being
overconfident.

- J.O.-