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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Ease back pressure in smoothly as you approach 114 kt, holding a steady rotation rate rather than snatching the controls.
What happened: On the takeoff roll the aircraft bounced before becoming fully airborne.
Watch for: Attitude indicator: a smooth, continuous pitch-up through liftoff with no secondary bounce.
See Departure Roll
Arrival
Begin the flare with progressive back pressure and keep it coming until the sink is arrested, rather than flying it on flat.
What happened: The nose was barely raised in the flare and little of the sink was taken out, flying the aircraft onto the runway. This pattern usually carries through to a firm touchdown with a noticeable sink rate.
Watch for: Vertical speed indicator: a smoothly reducing sink through the normal flare band, not a steady rate into the runway.
A typical trainer rotates in the mid-50s of knots - a 172 at around 55 KIAS, climbing out at a Vy in the low 70s, though check your own POH rather than memorising Cessna's numbers - and the transferable rule is that Vr sits just above the stall speed in takeoff configuration. Rotate early because "it felt ready" and the aircraft lifts off inside ground effect, where induced drag is reduced, then climbs out of it into more drag. On a marginal-performance day the result is an aircraft that lifts off and then refuses to climb, sagging back towards the runway.
Read more in Improve Your Take-OffsStart to finish · 18 stages, 16 in the score
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From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Rotated at 103 kt, 11 kt below the 114 kt target, and lifted off at 158 kt 7.2 s later, the nose coming up at 0.7° a second. Climb 3 averaged 218 kt, 31 kt over its 187 kt target.
Two traces from brake release: the airspeed on top, and below it the pitch, which is how far the nose is above the horizon. The dashed green line is the speed to rotate at for this aircraft at its weight, and the green dot is where the nose started to come up. The figures at liftoff are the pitch then and how fast the nose came up, in degrees a second. The shaded stretch is Climb 3, the part of the climb scored on holding the climb speed.
The takeoff, point by point
Side view from the start of the roll to the end of Climb 3 at 860 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 334 m of runway left; gear up at 24 ft, inside the 400 ft that gets full marks; then climbing at 2,050 fpm on average to 860 ft.
The takeoff from the side: the height above the runway against the distance along it. The numbers along the runway are the speeds reached at each point. Lifting off in the amber last quarter of the runway costs marks for the roll length. The gear-up ring is coloured by its mark. The shaded stretch is Climb 3, scored on its average speed against the target.
Plan view the roll down the 1,830 m runway.
Rolled from 50 m in, never more than 0.6 m off the centreline. Airborne 53 % of the way down the runway, before the 75 % line.
The roll from above, with your left at the top. The line is where the wheels went, and "widest" is the furthest you drifted off the centreline. Lifting off before the amber 75 % line gets full marks for the roll length. The arrow beside the runway is the crosswind, pointing the way the air was moving, so it pushed the aircraft that way.
One stabilised approach gate: seven checks where the approach path is 500 ft above the runway. The 1,000 ft gate was not assessed, because the approach did not join final that far out. These checks are the approach's score.
When the approach was stable
Every check met from 2.0 to 0.5 nm, then not again: low from 0.5 nm to the threshold.
Each line is one of the gate checks, run along the whole final rather than only at the gates: green where it would have passed, amber where it would not. The glideslope, centreline and speed lines use the bands in the charts beside this card. The sink rate is allowed what the glideslope needs at your ground speed plus 600 fpm, the wings 10° of bank, and the gear and flap are read from when you moved the levers. The bottom line is green where every check held at once, ignoring blips shorter than 0.2 nm, and the sentence above it says from where it held to the threshold. A ring is a stabilisation gate, where the checks in the table were taken.
The final from 4 nm, with the stabilisation gates on it.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 1° band in green.
On the glideslope from 4 nm to 0.5 nm, then low to the threshold (up to 70 ft under).
Your height above the runway against the distance still to go. The glideslope is the steady descent path to the aiming point, 305 m past the threshold: 3° here, which is about 320 ft for every nautical mile out, crossing the threshold at about 50 ft. The row under the distances is the height it puts you at. Inside the green band your path is drawn green; outside it, amber. A ring is a stabilisation gate: green when every check there passed, amber with the failed checks named beside it.
Plan distance off the extended centreline, your left at the top, with the 1° band. Sideways distances are drawn 3× larger than distances along the final.
Joined 263 m left of the centreline, then inside the band from 3.7 nm to the threshold.
Looking down from above, flying left to right towards the runway: up the page is left of the centreline, down is right. Sideways distances are stretched so that small drifts show, so a line that looks wild here may be only a few tens of feet. The labels are how far off you were at each distance, amber when outside the band.
Speed against the approach speed. The green band runs from 5 kt slow to 30 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 18 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 4 nm to 2.0 nm (up to +78 kt), then inside the band to the threshold.
Your indicated airspeed down the final, against the approach speed for this aircraft at its landing weight. The band allows 5 kt slow and more on the fast side further out, closing as you get lower, because the speed is expected to come off on the way down. The figures are knots above (+) or below (−) the approach speed.
Over the threshold
Touchdown
The flare wandered off the target profile. The aircraft was flown onto the runway - pitch changed 1.2° and the descent was barely arrested. Touchdown was 475 m past the threshold. Start the flare with progressive back pressure rather than one pull, and keep it coming.
Little crosswind (2 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 1° right of the track, wings level.
Wind 150° at 3 kt · 0 kt head · 2 kt across
The wind is the one recorded at the landing, split along the runway (headwind or tailwind) and across it. To hold the centreline in a crosswind the nose points a little into wind - the crab - and is straightened with rudder just before the wheels touch, often with the into-wind wing lowered to stop the drift. These are the nose against the direction you were actually moving, and the wings, at the moment of touchdown. Shown for reading; not marked.
From 117 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 36 s, an average deceleration of 0.13 g.
Your ground speed from the moment the wheels touched until you were down to taxi speed, against the distance rolled. A steep line is hard braking, a shallow one a long, gentle roll. For scale, an airliner's lowest autobrake setting decelerates at about 0.15 g, a medium one about 0.3 g. Shown for reading; not marked.
Side view — the last 1,524 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 30 ft, 20 ft below the 50 ft target; began the flare at 18 ft. Touched down 475 m in, 170 m past the ideal 305 m.
The last stretch of the approach and the touchdown, from the side. The height is stretched so that the last few feet show: 80 ft top to bottom, against 1,524 m across. The dashed line is the ideal, 50 ft over the threshold and down 305 m in. The flare ring is where you began raising the nose, and "descent slowed" is where the sink came off; the figures beside them are the sink rate, pitch and speed at that point.
Sink and pitch — through the flare, lined up with the side view.
The sink went from 330 fpm at the flare to 80 fpm at 10 ft, then back up to 320 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 0.6° on the way down.
Lined up with the side view above, so a point on one sits under the same point of the other. On top, how fast you were coming down: 0 is level, and −600 is 600 ft a minute down. Below, the pitch. In a flare the nose comes up and the descent slows towards 0. The figure at the touchdown line is your touchdown rate.
Plan view — the first 1,524 m of the 3,039 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline, and stayed within 0.6 m of it down the rollout.
The runway from above, with your left at the top. Touching down inside the green bracket scores full marks for the distance. The shaded part is the rollout, up to where it ended. The arrow beside the runway is the crosswind, pointing the way the air was moving, so it pushed the aircraft that way.
The 475 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The 323 fpm arrival was firm.
The rest of the report
The Learjet 35 taxied from the parking area to the departure runway in six minutes, covering a distance of 1 nm.
During the departure roll on runway 06 at KTTN Trenton Mercer Airport, the aircraft used 1,132 m of runway, representing 62 % of the available length, and lifted off at 158 kt. Ambient conditions were 28 °C with a wind of 2 kt from 270°, a 1 kt cross-wind component and a 1 kt tail-wind component.
The initial climb commenced one mile north of Ewing, New Jersey, climbing from 1,171 ft asl to 24,603 ft asl, an altitude gain of 23,432 ft achieved in ten minutes while covering 66 nm.
A brief level cruise followed one mile south of NJ07 Newport Meadows Seaplane Base, lasting two minutes and extending the flight by 12 nm.
A second climb began overhead 0N4 Chandelle Airport, Dover, Delaware, ascending from 24,866 ft asl to 33,995 ft asl, a gain of 9,129 ft in eleven minutes and traversing 88 nm.
The aircraft then entered a longer level cruise six miles northwest of Tangier, Virginia, which persisted for fifty minutes and added 391 nm to the route.
Descent operations started five miles southwest of SC15 Airy Hall Airport, Green Pond, South Carolina, descending from 34,004 ft asl to 1,903 ft asl, a loss of 32,101 ft in twenty-three minutes while covering 140 nm.
A short level segment followed four miles northeast of Callahan, Florida, lasting three minutes and contributing an additional 10 nm.
Final approach to runway 08 at KJAX Jacksonville International Airport reduced altitude from 1,330 ft agl to 38 ft agl in ninety-four seconds, with the aircraft scoring on the stabilisation gates.
Landing on runway 08 was executed with a runway length of 3,039 m; the threshold speed was 126 kt, touchdown occurred 53 m beyond the touchdown zone at 115 kt, and the vertical speed at touchdown was minus 190 fpm. Weather at the time was 27 °C with a wind of 2 kt from 150°, a 2 kt cross-wind and no head-wind component.
Runway rollout covered a distance of 1,385 m, representing 46 % of the runway, and alignment during rollout was perfect.
The aircraft taxied from the runway to the parking area in two minutes, traveling less than 1 nm.
In total, the flight covered 715 nm, lasted 108 minutes, and consumed 1,204 kg of fuel.
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