A320 captain reported that during an autoland procedure; he mistakenly thought the aircraft was on t...

Narrative:

The first officer had not seen an autoland and since it was a long day after a short day sleep; I decided it was a good day to do an autoland. The approach was perfect. My first officer missed the approaching alert height and I reminded her. She missed the alert height call and I reminded her. Shortly after that I lost situational awareness. For some reason; I thought we were on the ground. I quickly pulled the thrust levers to idle and started to raise the thrust reverser paddles. As soon as I did that I quickly pushed the handles back down. The landing was very firm; but not hard.I did not realize how tired I was. I felt ok. But; that loss of situational awareness gave me a shot of adrenaline and that's when I realized I wasn't as alert as I thought. I really don't think the reversers ever deployed; but because the landing was much harder than I'm used to on an autoland; I thought I better write this report.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 Captain reported that during an autoland procedure; he mistakenly thought the aircraft was on the ground. He set trust to idle and started to raise the thrust reverser paddles resulting in a very firm landing.

Narrative: The First Officer had not seen an autoland and since it was a long day after a short day sleep; I decided it was a good day to do an autoland. The approach was perfect. My FO missed the Approaching Alert Height and I reminded her. She missed the alert height call and I reminded her. Shortly after that I lost situational awareness. For some reason; I thought we were on the ground. I quickly pulled the thrust levers to idle and started to raise the thrust reverser paddles. As soon as I did that I quickly pushed the handles back down. The landing was very firm; but not hard.I did not realize how tired I was. I felt ok. But; that loss of situational awareness gave me a shot of adrenaline and that's when I realized I wasn't as alert as I thought. I really don't think the reversers ever deployed; but because the landing was much harder than I'm used to on an autoland; I thought I better write this report.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1438455
Time
Date	201704
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Landing
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A320 captain reported that during an autoland procedure; he mistakenly thought the aircraft was on the ground. He set trust to idle and started to raise the thrust reverser paddles resulting in a very firm landing.