The Navy or Marine pilot is trained to land on an aircraft carrier. Upon initial approach, the carrier looks about the size of a postage stamp floating on the water. The pilot not only has to hit that, but a specific part of it -- the part where the arresting cables are. When the plane contacts the deck, the pilot has to give it full throttle in case the tail hook misses one of the cables (there are usually 4 of them).
When I was in the Navy on the USS Ranger, my rack was right under the flight deck, near the rear of the ship. During night operations, I could hear those planes hit the deck hard. I got to where I could tell what kind of plane was landing by the sound. The F4's would hit the hardest due to their stubby wings. Upon final approach, I could hear that the pilot was using the throttle to control the plane (the sound of the jet constantly changing). So the sound that rocked me to sleep would be an increasing, constantly changing jet engine sound followed by a thud as the plane hit the deck, followed a few minutes later with a repeat of the same.
