Hard Landing

It descended hard and hot - must have been a rookie, flaps oscillating mightily correcting overcorrections, undercarriage lowered and high angled wings up and wide spread out for maximum deceleration. If there had been a computer on-board it would have been repeating: "too low - too low, terrain-pull-up, terrain pull-up!" but there was just a solo goose brain at the controls, and landing on ice in low visibility is always tricky even for professional flyers. It came in fast, no chance of aborting the landing now, no time for last moment adjustments, webs touching down, then lifting up as the impact jolted it airwards again, Touch-down, yawing badly, wings now beating the air wildly, somehow the bird keeps a shaky balance as it slews and skids to a rocking half. The goose immediately starts preening and shaking-out its tail feathers as if to say: "nothing to see here." The other geese in that same flight honking loudly, hard to say if they were cheering or jeering.