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Airbus A330 makes the smoothest landing you’ve ever seen [video]

Posted by / January 17, 2016

This is the kind of pilot you want. The passengers probably didn’t even know they landed! Keep an eye on the wheels––no bounce. Also, keep an eye on the engines, no bounce either.

Full story at YouTube.

More great aviation stuff.

Comments are off for this post.

  • Joe Barreto

    beautifull. congratulations to the pilots.

  • Skip Forrest

    judge a pilot by the last 6 inches of an 18 hour flight….. seems reasonable

  • this was probably the AUTO-LAND system, in early December on a quatar airbus 350 on an inuagarual flight from JFK to Dubai the RTO (Reject Take Off) system kicked in at 100knts on runway rollout and slammed on the brakes hard (see it on you tube) because of the data on JFK’s runway length was to short on the Flight Management Computer. was this a crew error on inserting the flight plan (wrong airport icoa cde), or the data SIMcard was programmend wrong! our wonder full world on automatic computer reliance today. YES MACHINES RULE and we humans are their pets !

  • Karl

    Were they manual or auto?? Will they do it twice in a row -manual????

  • John

    Pretty Awesome!

  • Manuel

    amazing

  • tzx4

    Helps to have still air.

  • joey

    I was on a United 777 on a flight from Kuwait to Washington DC, where the pilot landed so smoothly I didn’t even know we were on the ground.

  • Mike Ham

    Frank Banholzer: auto land systems don’t land that smooth. They put the aircraft down very firm. And that A350 did not RTO because the automated system told it to; the RTO activated when the pilot flying pull the thrust levers to idle as it should. The pilot reduced throttle because of an ECAM alert regarding the RAAS system, and they were doing less than 80 knots. You never abort after 80 knots unless the aircraft is uncontrollable or there is an engine failure. The idea that the RTO would happen automatically is something the media came up with, and is false, idiotic, and a little scary. If you want to know more about that, go to YouTube, search for the Airline Pilot Guy channel, look for APG 199, skip th 50:40 and you will hear an explanation about why this happened from Captain Nick Anderson, a Virgin A340 captain.

  • By far the smoothest landing I’ve seen. Great!

  • Jason

    Skip, there is no such thing as an 18 hour flight…yet.

  • how is the public going to know what an ecam alert is for christ sakes or an rto? really? plus this probably happens
    2 or 3 hundred times a day. and yes it does help to have some wind sometimes. otherwise, cool, i taught you boys right!

  • You may need to also consider environmental conditions that are always changing. The same pilot and same A/C can experience – for instance crosswind of buffeting wind conditions – and the whole thing suddenly is no longer all that smooth.

  • Thunderspreck

    I’ve experienced landings like this a few times. The first time I rode in a Douglas DC-8, the pilot managed to do this. It’s harder to do in Boeing aircraft, especially their earlier jets like the 707, because their wings are designed more for efficiency and less for a smooth stall, but I’ve been on Boeings where the pilot managed to do it anyway.

  • rocketbob32505

    I’ve had smoother landings on the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier in the North Atlantic.

  • Freddo

    Nevermind the video is at least 5 years old though

  • Yes there is 18 hour flights I did them in a B-52

  • Gary

    On my last trip to Seattle from Logan in Boston,on board a Jet Blue A320, we had just such a landing. So smooth we didn’t even realize the plane was on the ground. And exactly the same thing on the return flight.

  • Given that it’s US Air , it’s a beautiful landing , 2 hours late.

  • I think smooth landing with good weather is normal. How does anyone know he is just junk pilot with auto landing or rare smooth landing?

  • Danny Brown

    @Jason – I guess you’ve never flown to Iraq from New Mexico!

  • Fred G.

    I fly a lot. I always pay attention to landings, taking off is a whole different thing. I was on a Southwest flight and I swear I had no idea we landed until the reverse engine mode kicked in, no idea at all, I was waiting to land.

  • sheriff

    I fly A330 twice a week (captain of a french airline). I do the same every time except with strong crosswind. The trick is to keep full back stick until the nose gear has landed (like any A/C). But you can’t avoid the small impact when front wheels of main L/G hit the ground.

  • Robert

    Nice. There is another video available from the same post showing a bunch of fellas trying to negotiate a fairly stiff direct crosswind on landing. What is amazing is that each landing attempt clearly demonstrates incorrect technique. Many heavy iron drivers have forgotten how to fly. The correct way is to slip to the landing in the flare; banking into the wind to stay over the runway, using rudder to track the centerline so you don’t snap the tires off the gear by landing sideways. I think every small plane pilot knows how to do this without thinking about it too much. The FAA recently recognized that pro aircrew are losing proficiency in basic flying skills and asked the airlines to come up with some training standards and guidelines. But I am surprised by the degree to which some pro pilots are unable to maneuver thier ships effectively in unusual circumstances. It seems pretty dangerous to me. I would prefer that my captain were master of the aircraft.

  • smooth Airbus ! for me its Airbus or nothin’

  • bobie trap

    No such thing as computer lands the plane. Pilots still need to control the stick during flare.

  • Pretty good landing for an airliner, but I’ve seen a pilot whose landings put that to shame…and always on manual, no less. And always wearing his trademark straw hat.

    His name is Robert A. “Bob” Hoover, and I’d expect that he, at least when he was still flying, could’ve landed an airliner at least that smoothly. None other than Jimmy Doolittle himself called Hoover “the greatest stick-and-rudder man that ever lived”, and having personally seen him fly, I’m inclined to agree.

  • Fritz

    Sheriff, good show. I went from the B-727 to the A-300 37 years ago. Took me a while to make a smooth landing like this. The B-727 required a different landing technique and it took some time to adjust to the new plane. It looks to me that on the video the aircraft was flown onto the runway at a higher speed than necessary. I remember we listened to the flight engineer call out how high we were over the runway, that at 200 ft. I would begin to come off with the power, begin to pull back on the yoke and touch down about 1.500 ft. from the start of the runway. It was a pretty fool-proof way to get the airplane on the ground.

  • Jim Moos

    you can comment on smooth landings every day, but “smooth landings” occur when multiple conditions occur Remember this: ALL TAKEOFFS ARE OPTIONAL– ALL LANDINGS ARE MANDITORY

  • Klint. H.

    this one is pretty good as well. Its an A319 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5le4UEkFZo

  • david

    that’s the problem with todays aircraft to much automation, pilots hardly have any real skills I would like the pilot of that airplane make that smooth of a landing in an old plane made bad in the 60’s……you gotta ask yourself how much actual flying does a pilot do is today’s modern airplanes

  • Loved the comment about US Airways – my experience every time! They are not only incredibly tardy to a fault, they are absolute arseholes towards their passengers about it. It’s happened to me so many times with them that I point blank refuse to fly with the airline anymore. US Airways could give me a lifetime free-flight card and I still wouldn’t fly with them on principle.