Plane landing

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Trigger warning flying for those that may not be keen … x

Am I being unreasonable to think that the below was a bit concerning / any pilots want to enlighten me?!
have flown a lot when younger / pre children but felt this was different

budget airline flight, approx 300 passengers Boeing 737
landing very wobbly on approach ( think close to runway)
huge bang on landing / touch down landing gear
worst bit!!! Very very intense what felt like attempts to break without slowing …. Loudest reverse thrust noise ever and the cabin shaking so so much
I felt pinned back in my seat and awaited a huge issue!
afterwards everyone was studded … one women crying and a few choice words heard through the cabin….
Thoughts please

Firmer landings are actually safer according to Boeing SOPs. They don't feel as good for passengers, but in high winds the extra downforce prevents the plane being blown about during flare.

The RAF famously landed one of its new (to them) tankers using auto-land (known as CAT III) at one of their runways that wasn’t CAT III capable. Nobody died, but it did not end well.

Flown a lot and had quite a few of these.

I suspect some of the less "smooth" landings are due to inexperienced co-pilots having a go for the first time or in difficult conditions.

Basically whether we like it or not everyone has to learn somehow.

It was incredibly windy in Bristol today so I'm unsurprised the landing was a bit rough. My car was getting battered by the wind from all sides.

I took a few flights with ITA Airways recently and I think they might be the worst at landing. They come in far too fast and both times the plans veered off sideways and the pilot pulled on the brakes so hard that we were all pinned back in our seats.

Despite the rough landings, I'm always just glad that we land in one piece.

Sounds like a Ryanair landing.

Had one where we bounced so hard all the overhead lockers flew open and we got hit with hand luggage, duty frees etc. Oh yes and a trolley broke free from the galley and came careering up the aisle

TBH your chances of surviving a bad or rough landing are far greater than surviving a break up in midair.

A lot of pilots will tell you that landings are really just controlled crashes.

What is really scary is being at 30,000 feet and watching one of the engines decide to destroy itself.

What is even more scary is the decision to continue, rather than head for an emergency landing !

I fly out of Bristol regularly and totally recognised your experience before you confirmed airport

When I read your op. I knew it would be Ryan air. I call them the boy/girl racers of the Sykes. You certainly know a take off and landing with Ryan air.

The worst landing I ever had was coming into Newark. It was like he had lost total control.

Wiki - Bristol Airport:
….The airport has one of the shortest international airport runways in the country at just 2,011 m (6,598 ft) in length.….

So it’s only 2/3 the length of RAF Stansted and RAF Gatwick 😂

I think that was a Tristar aircraft that was warned not to try autopilot landing into RAF Brize Norton….wasn’t the altitude setting not reflecting actual ground level or something….

TBF I don't think they tend to land at major airports with really long runways.

A lot of the destinations are "close to" destinations rather than actually the main airports. Or at least they were when I last checked.

Spot on, it was the TriStar at Brize. You win!

DS does flight simulator training, hard landing is called a Ryanair landing, nice smooth one is a BA landing. To be fair his instructor said it is how the Ryanair pilots are told to land.

I’ve had two really bad landings recently. One into Manchester during strong winds. Plane was going from side to side and shaking as you described.

Last flight I had such a quick descent that I got a full on nose bleed and lots of passengers complaining about pressure pain in their ears. But it was a small island runway and I guess they don’t have much time to go for it.

Yes!! Come to think of it, Bristol landings are scary. One time we were landed by the control tower, the Pilot said, the control tower is taking over now. This might be a bumpy landing. Fog I think, can’t remember. The flight after us was diverted to Manchester.

The airport is renowned for poor weather.

Roses2
malaga to Bristol any chance!! That was the flight !!

A bit of boring light reading from my notes:

Random Selection in Length in Descending Order

Fuerte = 3406

Antalya - 3400

LGW = 3316

RAF Brize Norton - 3050

Stansted = 3049

RAF Fairford - 3048

LeMnos = 3000m (space shuttle emergency diversionary)

Porto santo azores = 3000m

LeSvos Mytilene = 2400 m - but full brakes needed - alarming 2022…someone lost their glasses. Dramatic.

St Maarten = 2300

Bristol = 2011 - one of shortest in UK

Zadar = 2000 tarmac + 2500 other runway running E/W

Aberdeen = 1953 (Balmoral)

Gibraltar = 1829 - 5th most extreme in world - after Kai Tak (closed)

Skiathos = 1628 - difficult! Fuerte is more than double….

Tioman Island - 992 !
No 8 in the most difficult runways in the world and after Courchevel and Gibraltar

The main issue is, after you’ve survived the hard landing, you’re then in Bristol...

I think Lufthansa do hard landings too and an ex colleague who'd been cabin crew with them said that safety was the reason. So not just Ryanair.

BA seem to go in for smoother landings but it depends on the pilot and the conditions.

I guess it's reassuring if it's a common occurance?
Why do Ryan Air have to do it that way then? Is it a fuel thing

I am finding this way more interesting than anticipated ! 🤪

Oh God I shouldn’t have opened this thread! I even read the trigger warning and read on! 😂

Sounds not great if not unusual. Had an aborted landing into Salzburg with crosswinds then a bumpy successful retry with hard braking/reverse thrust.

Sounds like a windy day. That’s all.

The airport isn’t really Bristol. It’s quite a way out. I always think of it as a bit past Weston.