Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Maintain the centreline
See Departure Roll
A small uncorrected heading error at 40 knots becomes a metre of offset per second by 100 knots, noticed only at rotation, producing a crabbed liftoff. Root cause is nearly always eyes on the tape instead of the far end of the runway. Small heading changes displace a distant point visibly long before the nearby centreline stripes look wrong.
Read more in Improve Your Take-OffsStart to finish · 17 stages, 15 in the score
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 66 kt with 4.6° of pitch.
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 figure at liftoff is the pitch then.
The takeoff, point by point
Side view from the start of the roll to 394 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 5,636 ft of runway left; then climbing at 480 fpm on average to 394 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.
Plan view the roll down the 6,397 ft runway.
Rolled from the start of the runway, drifted 24 ft right of the centreline and was back on it to lift off. Airborne 3 % 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.
Left-hand, 1,000 ft circuit height. The plan shows your circuit over a textbook one for this runway; the profile unrolls the same path from liftoff to the threshold.
Plan landing direction to the left; in pale blue the textbook circuit for your downwind speed, 0.9 nm out at 92 kt
The lap from above, with the landing direction to the left: the opposite of the runway drawings. The wide pale-blue line is a textbook circuit for your downwind speed - the downwind a mile out for every 100 kt, every turn at 30° of bank - and your track is drawn over it, each leg in the colour of its mark. The numbers are the four turns, the same as on the profile and the cards below. The 45° line from the threshold is the usual point to turn onto base.
Around the circuit height and bank; the turns are shaded
The same lap straightened out, so the height and the bank can be read together. Each shaded stretch is a turn, numbered as on the plan. The green box is circuit height, 1,000 ft, on the downwind. The amber line is 30° of bank, and a turn's steepest bank shows red above 32°. "Turn crosswind from" is the lowest height to start the first turn at.
Early: turned crosswind at 537 ft. US guidance is within 300 ft of circuit height, 700 ft here, so the climb ends on downwind.
Crosswind. Turn 90 degrees when you're within about 300 ft of pattern altitude, which at a standard field means roughly 700 ft AGL, or two-thirds of the way up. That rule exists for a reason worth knowing. It means you finish the climb and level off on downwind, wings level, rather than trying to capture an altitude mid-turn. If you turn crosswind at pattern altitude instead, you arrive on downwind still cleaning up, and the abeam point catches you unconfigured.
Read more in Pattern WorkLost marks: scored 70.
Lost marks: scored 70.
The final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3.3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 2.0 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 60 ft below the slope.
Your height above the runway against the distance still to go. The glideslope is the steady descent path to the aiming point, 1,000 ft past the threshold: 3.3° here, which is about 350 ft for every nautical mile out, crossing the threshold at about 60 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.
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.
Inside the 1° band all the way from 2.0 nm, never more than 980 ft off the centreline.
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.
Over the threshold
Touchdown
Little crosswind (2 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 2° right of the track, wings level.
Wind 270° at 7 kt · 7 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 56 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 9 s, an average deceleration of 0.17 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 5,000 ft of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 20 ft, 30 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 1,371 ft in, 371 ft past the ideal 1,000 ft.
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 5,000 ft across. The dashed line is the ideal, 50 ft over the threshold and down 1,000 ft 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 440 fpm at 20 ft to 80 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 4.2° 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 5,000 ft of the 6,397 ft runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline and drifted to 75 ft right on 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 1,371 ft touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The flight in the PA28 Archer II began with a 4-minute taxi from the parking area to the runway at KEKO Elko Regional Airport. The departure roll on runway 24 covered a distance of 1,458 ft, which was 23% of the total runway length. The liftoff speed was 66 knots. The local weather at the time of departure was 35 °F with a 5 knot wind coming from 270 °, resulting in a 2 knot crosswind and a 5 knot headwind.
After takeoff, a left-hand pattern entry was made from runway 24 at KEKO Elko Regional Airport, covering less than 1 nm in 23 seconds. This was followed by a left-hand pattern crosswind leg, covering less than 1 nm in 29 seconds. The pattern downwind turn covered 1 nm with an angle to the runway of 83.3 °, while the pattern downwind leg covered 3 nm in 89 seconds. The base leg turn covered 2 nm with an angle of 11.2 ° to the runway.
The final approach to runway 24 at KEKO Elko Regional Airport was made from the east at a heading of 248.0 °, 1 nm away from the runway and at an altitude of 573 ft. The landing on runway 24 was successful, with a touchdown distance of 1,362 ft at a speed of 57 knots. The touchdown rate was an excellent -77 ft/min. The total landing distance was 1,913 ft, which was 30% of the runway length. The touchdown alignment was perfect despite the crosswind of 3 knots and headwind of 7 knots.
After landing, a 3-minute taxi back to the parking area was completed, covering less than 1 nm. The total flight distance was 10 nm, taking 10 minutes to complete and using 6 lbs of fuel. The overall flight was successful, with precise maneuvers during both takeoff and landing despite varying weather conditions.
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