I am guessing this accounts for the fact that he couldn't turn the afterburners off until he had lifted off: he didn't have the time to fiddle enough with the controls.
>> During final seconds you learn to feel through your butt the rate of descent - you coordinate butt feeling of descending (less speed means less lift, thus more descending) with hand pulling the stick to compensate decreasing speed with increasing the angle of attack (thus increasing lift), you smoothly balance this dynamic imbalance, you slowly decrease speed, increase lift and slowly decrease the height above the concrete in order to land smoothly from desired height.
That must be what people mean when they talk about "flying by the seat of your pants" XD