Tail Strike on Landing

[GeorgeC]

I aim to have power smoothly back to idle by at least 50' or so. Higher is better. The sooner you take power out of the equation, the easier it is to focus on other stuff.
...
It's often when "chopping" the power at some point that it can feel like the bottom is falling out and the ground rushing up.

When flying the 162 into shorter strips, I'd aim for the numbers and pull power on short final. No big deal.

Then, when I started flying the 182 at a larger airport, I'd aim for the numbers out of habit, pull power, and feel the nose drop and the bottom fall out. That felt bad. I didn't want to prang the nosewheel, so I started carrying power all the way down into ground effect, and then slowly pull the power while trying to maintain a constant pitch attitude. That felt worse; I was landing too flat. As it turns out, those 1000' marks are there for a reason, and if you aim for them, you can slowly pull the power over the fence or threshold while you still have a little altitude, minimize any pitch excursions, and then have one less knob to deal with.