Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Ease back pressure in smoothly as you approach 45 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
Be established on the glideslope before the gate, with small corrections made early rather than a large one late.
What happened: The approach was off the glideslope at the stabilisation gate.
Watch for: Glideslope indication at the gate
See Arrival Approach
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 · 14 stages, 12 in the score
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 48 kt with 3.0° of pitch. Climb 3 averaged 61 kt, 10 kt under its 71 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 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 970 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,089 m of runway left; then climbing at 1,180 fpm on average to 970 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 1,383 m runway.
Rolled from 71 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 3 m at the widest, and lifted off 1.9 m left. Airborne 11 % 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.
One stabilised approach gate: five checks where the approach path is 300 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.
At the 300 ft gate: glideslope more than 2° off the runway's 3°.
Still turning onto final at the lower gate, so the centreline and wings level are not asked there - the aeroplane was not lined up yet, and was banked because it was turning. The other checks are marked as usual.
When the approach was stable
Never every check met at once: high all the way and right of the centreline until 0.9 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.
High from 1.2 nm, where the final began, to the threshold (up to 420 ft over).
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 239 m right of the centreline at 1.2 nm, then inside the band from 0.9 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 21 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 12 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between −1 kt and +4 kt on the approach speed of 41 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.
wheel landing
Over the threshold
Touchdown
Perfect landing flare
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 181° at 2 kt · 1 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 40 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 8 s, an average deceleration of 0.07 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 32 ft, 18 ft below the 50 ft target; began the flare at 13 ft. Touched down 328 m in, close to 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 260 fpm at the flare to 60 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 2.9° 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 1,983 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline, and stayed within 0.4 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 328 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The Savage Cub taxied from its parking position to the departure runway in 9 minutes, covering a ground distance of 2 nm before lining up on runway 20 at KTRK Truckee-Tahoe Airport.
During the take-off roll the aircraft used 194 m of runway, representing 14 % of the available length, and lifted off at 49 kt; the local weather was 3 °C with a wind of 2 kt from 178°, a 1 kt cross-wind component and a 1 kt head-wind component.
Climb commenced immediately after liftoff, with the airplane ascending from 6,294 ft asl to 8,122 ft asl - a gain of 1,828 ft - in 2 minutes while covering 2 nm, the climb being initiated overhead KTRK Truckee-Tahoe Airport.
The level cruise segment began 2 miles south-east of KTRK and was maintained for 20 minutes, during which the aircraft travelled 31 nm at a steady altitude.
Descent started 1 mile south of South Lake Tahoe, descending from 7,919 ft asl to 6,875 ft asl - a loss of 1,044 ft - in 3 minutes and covering 4 nm.
Final approach to runway 36 at KTVL Lake Tahoe Airport was executed from the south, on a heading of 13.0° at 1 nm and 606 ft agl; the aircraft then descended from 817 ft agl to 87 ft agl in 82 seconds, meeting the stabilisation gates.
Landing on runway 36 was achieved with a threshold speed of 38 kt, a touchdown distance of 188 m and a touchdown speed of 35 kt; the vertical speed at touchdown was minus 108 fpm and alignment was perfect, while local conditions were 3 °C, wind 2 kt from 181°, no cross-wind and a 1 kt tail-wind component.
Rollout continued along the runway with perfect alignment; the total landing distance recorded was 305 m, representing 15 % of the runway length.
In total the flight covered 41 nm, taking 31, and used 0 kg of fuel.
Scroll or drag the slider to zoom · double-click to reset · hover for values