Sorry, jb747.
I have been watching too many aeroplane landing/touchdown youtube videos, and on the landing sequence, there is the countdown, 500/400/300/200/50 and then what sounds like ret(a)^d, when the plane tyres touches the ground.
Its that recorder voice, not the pilots voice.
The altitude callouts are, to some extent, customisable by individual airlines, so they aren't necessarily all the same. The QF calls on the 380 were 1000, 500, hundred above, minima, 100, 50, 40, 30, 20, retard.
The "hundred above", and "minima" calls move depending upon what you have set in the FMGS (FMC) and might overwrite one of the others.
The "retard" call is telling you that it wants the thrust levers moved out of the CLB (or MCT) detent and pulled back to idle. On 99% of manually flown approaches, the levers were closed before that call was made, which had the effect of cancelling it. On automatic landings, the levers were left in CLB until the aircraft asked for them to be moved. The aircraft inertia was such, that closing the levers at the 40' call was almost always right.
Whilst you could manually control the thrust, almost all landings, whether automatic or manual, were flown with the autothrust engaged. If you get to the flare, and it's still in, then it will attempt to maintain the speed, so as you flare it will be adding power. But, as you flare, you actually want the aircraft to be decelerating, so adding power (unless you're trying to catch some gusts) is not what you want. "Retard" is the reminder that you need to move the levers.
I thought it was just the way Airbus insults pilots!
Well, if you let it go off, then perhaps that's appropriate.
(poetic licence)
