SEL 'FIRM' landings

On 6 Jan 2006 06:56:53 -0800, "Tony" wrote:

During my initial private pilot night training I had plenty of "black
hole" landings where I just "knew" the runway had to be inches below
when it was actually several feet. After one particularly hard night
"drop in" I actually asked my instructor to inspect the landing gear
area the next morning with me; he laughed, but looked at the 172
anyway.

Since this ng dosen't seem to be limited strictly to winged aircraft
(I haven't read the FAQs or charter if there is one) I'll mention my
second hot air balloon landing. I wasn't able to arrest the descent in
time to avoid slamming into the ground in no-wind conditions; My
instructor and I were completely surrounded by the balloon skirt as
the envelope kept descending after the basket hit the ground. Worse,
we did it all over again twice seeing a little less skirt each time
before the thing just ran out of bounce.

Ricky