Definition
Landings in which the airplane touches down incorrectly due to errors in the pilot's technique, judgment, or control inputs during the approach, roundout, flare, or touchdown phases. Common forms include flat touchdowns, hard landings, bouncing, ballooning, porpoising, drift on touchdown, wheelbarrowing, and runway overshoots or undershoots.
Plain English
Landings that go wrong because the pilot did something incorrectly on approach or at touchdown — for example, hitting the runway too hard, bouncing, or landing while drifting sideways.
Context Anchor
Seen in training discussions about approach and landing errors, especially when learning how to recognize a bad landing early and correct it safely.
Derivation
Faulty comes from fault, meaning an error, defect, or wrong action. Landing means bringing the aircraft from flight onto the ground. Together, faulty landings means landings that contain errors in how they are flown or completed.
Why Pilots Care
Uncorrected faulty landings increase the risk of runway excursions, aircraft damage, or loss of directional control during the most critical phase of flight.
Intuition Check
Faulty does not mean the airplane is broken. Here it means the landing technique or decision-making was wrong or not well controlled.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor spent the lesson reviewing faulty landings so the student could recognize a bounce or balloon and respond with a go-around.
Example Sentence 2
Reviewing the causes of faulty landings before each practice session helped the student maintain better airspeed and attitude control on final approach.