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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Shorten the long landing
Every knot above Vref is stored kinetic energy, and energy stored at the threshold must be dissipated in ground effect before the aeroplane will stop flying. Because kinetic energy scales with the square of speed, the excess you must dissipate grows fast. At a 45-knot approach, five knots hot is over a tenth more speed and roughly a quarter more energy to get rid of in ground effect. This is why the fix is never in the flare. It was decided three miles earlier, on final, at the airspeed indicator.
Read more in VRef ExplainedStart to finish · 33 stages, 32 in the score
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From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 73 kt with 2.0° 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 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 478 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 349 m of runway left; then climbing at 690 fpm on average to 478 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 shaded stretch is Climb 3, scored on its average speed against the target.
Plan view the roll down the 2,682 m runway.
Rolled from 1,396 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 5.3 m at the widest, and lifted off 5.3 m left. Airborne 59 % 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.
At the 500 ft gate: gear still up, no landing flap set and speed more than 18 kt above the approach speed of 60 kt.
When the approach was stable
Never every check met at once: no landing flap all the way, fast all the way, right of the centreline until 3.1 nm and gear up until 1.1 nm.
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 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 4 nm to the threshold, never more than 680 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, 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 221 m right of the centreline, then inside the band from 3.1 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 the threshold (up to +88 kt).
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
Poor landing flare
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 3° left of the track, wings level.
Wind 269° at 3 kt · 2 kt tail · 0 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 80 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 14 s, an average deceleration of 0.20 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 33 ft, 17 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 629 m in, 324 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.
From 42 ft the descent stopped and turned into a climb of 150 fpm before coming down at 190 fpm to touch. The nose came up 4.4° 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 1,654 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 4.5 m left of the centreline and drifted to 8.2 m left 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.
Touched down 629 m past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The 1.35 G arrival bounced.
The rest of the report
The flight in question was conducted using the VL-3 915 aircraft, departing from runway 32 at the Rogue Valley International Medford Airport (KMFR) in Medford, Oregon, United States. The takeoff distance was 210 meters, which accounted for 8% of the runway. The aircraft lifted off at a speed of 74 knots.
The local weather conditions at the time of departure were characterized by a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 2 knots from a direction of 269 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 2 knots and a headwind of 1 knot.
After departing from KMFR, the aircraft began its enroute climb, starting 1 mile north of the airport and climbing to an altitude of 6,753 feet above sea level (asl). This climb phase covered a distance of 13 nautical miles and took 6 minutes to complete. The aircraft then began its descent, starting overhead the Mucky Flat Airport (89OR) in Eagle Point, Oregon, and descending to an altitude of 2,064 ft asl. This descent phase covered a distance of 10 nautical miles and took 5 minutes to complete.
The flight continued with multiple enroute climbs and descents, with the aircraft reaching altitudes of up to 10,393 ft asl and covering distances of up to 13 nautical miles. The flight also included several level cruise phases, lasting between 2 and 6 minutes, and covering distances of up to 4 nautical miles.
The final approach to runway 07 at the Christmas Valley Airport (62S) was conducted from the west, with the aircraft heading 85.0 degrees and flying at an altitude of 619 feet above ground level (agl). The landing was made on runway 07, which had a length of 1,654 meters. The touchdown point was 221 meters beyond the touchdown zone, and the touchdown speed was 69 knots, which was considered excessively fast.
The local weather conditions at the time of landing were characterized by a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 2 knots from a direction of 269 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 0 knots and a tailwind of 2 knots.
The total landing distance was 1,032 meters, which accounted for 62% of the runway. The runway rollout alignment was very good, and the taxiing to the parking from the runway took less than 1 minute and covered less than 1 nautical mile.
The total flight distance was 130 nautical miles, and the flight took 58 minutes to complete. The aircraft used 19 kilograms of fuel during the flight.
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