I Can’t Believe It’s Not Budda; The Debate

When a pilot has a smooth and soft landing, the debate has been, did the pilot butter the landing, or did the pilot grease the landing?

It might be a bit obvious that RyanAir pilots are notorious for not having a voice in this debate, considering the numerous videos of hard landings provided by passengers who fly the budget airline. But every pilot can have a bad landing now and then.

Searching for the term Butter the Landing brings up a lot of different meaning like the landing was so smooth it was like buttering bread. For some reason, I would believe that a pilot, or an aviation person, would not want to compare a smooth landing as a toast spread or topper.

So why did butter become a term for smooth landings?

Butter Origin

It’s fairly simple really. The term butter the landing derived from a youtube content creator, a notorious Youtube content creator. We fall into a realm of realism in which we like to imply the correct terminology. In talking with many JetBlue pilots, the term butter is obnixious and is not the correct terminology for a smooth landing.

Grease the Landing

The industry of pilots and aviation usies the terminology of greasing the landing because simply, grease is used in aviation and applies to the industry. When you look at a busy runway from overhead, the landing zones are etched with black streaks, or skid marks, or grease lines.

The above image is from Google Maps, which shows a clear and distinct black pattern in the runway landing zones. These are tire marks made from plane landings. Most of these marks are left from smooth landings as the wheel gently touches ground and creates a puff of smoke. Once the tire gets rolling to match the speed of the plane, the marking stops.

Much like a burn out on a drag strip, the tires leave a mark.

Greasing the landing is the correct analogy synonomous with a smooth touchdown. Anyone that calls a smooth landing butter, is following the obnoxious rubric from some Youtube content creator who has no industry experience or connection to correct or understand the terminology to educate the followers on proper phrasing and showing respect for the industry and the people within it.

Always Grease the Landing.