Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Hold the nose down until the speed reaches 103 kt, then rotate.
What happened: You started the rotation at 50 kt, 53 kt before the 103 kt rotation speed.
Watch for: Airspeed indicator: 103 kt at rotation
See Departure Roll
Arrival
Reduce power earlier on final so threshold speed settles at 76 kt instead of carrying it into the flare.
What happened: You crossed the threshold at 109 kt, well above the 76 kt target speed, and that excess speed was still showing at touchdown. Crossing the threshold fast usually carries straight through to a fast touchdown.
Watch for: Airspeed indicator against 76 kt on short final.
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 · 15 stages, 13 in the score
Events
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Rotated at 50 kt, 53 kt below the 103 kt target, and lifted off at 96 kt 8.4 s later, the nose coming up at 0.6° a second.
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 takeoff, point by point
Side view from the start of the roll to 587 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,085 m of runway left; then climbing at 1,280 fpm on average to 587 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 1,866 m runway.
Rolled from 31 m in, drifted 2.4 m left of the centreline and was back on it to lift off. Airborne 24 % 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.
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, 1.4 nm out at 140 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.
Good: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
Low on downwind: 881 ft against 1,000 ft, 119 ft below.
Descending on downwind. Power comes back abeam, the aircraft isn't re-trimmed, your eyes are outside judging the turn point, and 100 ft leaks away before base. Shows up as a low gate 2, and everything after it is a scramble.
Read more in Pattern WorkGood: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
Good: full marks on the turn.
The final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 1.1 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 40 ft above 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.
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 from 1.1 nm, where the final began, to 0.9 nm, then drifted 44 m right between 0.9 and 0.5 nm, then inside the band from 0.5 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 38 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 23 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 1.1 nm, where the final began, to the threshold (up to +42 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
The flare held the target profile well. Crossing the threshold 33 kt above target, the flare took all the sink out 8 ft agl above the runway and the aircraft then dropped the rest of the way, 406 fpm of sink coming back. Touchdown was 425 m past the threshold. Hold the attitude and let it settle rather than pushing - that excess speed is what turns a normal flare into a balloon, so the fix is on the approach, not in the flare.
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 2° right of the track, wings level.
Wind 269° at 1 kt · 1 kt head · 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 88 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 13 s, an average deceleration of 0.24 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.
Began the flare at 21 ft, 2 m before the threshold; crossed the threshold at 20 ft, 30 ft below the 50 ft target; ballooned 3 ft from 6 ft. Touched down 425 m in, 120 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 the flare the descent stopped and turned into a climb of 110 fpm before coming down at 250 fpm to touch. The nose came up 5.2° 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 1,524 m of the 1,866 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline, and stayed about there down the rollout, 3.9 m right at the widest.
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 425 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The 249 fpm arrival was firm.
The rest of the report
The Lancair Legacy taxied to runway 23 at EGPE Inverness Airport and departed from that runway. Takeoff required 477 m, which was 26 % of the runway length. Rotation occurred at 50 kt. The local weather at departure was temperature 16 °C, wind 1 kt from 269°, with a 1 kt cross-wind and a 1 kt head-wind.
Initial climb to 400 ft agl lasted 26 seconds, averaging 1,063 fpm and reaching 118 kt at the top of the climb. The aircraft then entered a left-hand circuit for runway 23. The downwind leg was 2 nm and was flown in 45 seconds at 880 ft agl; the base leg was 1 nm and was completed in 34 seconds.
On final approach to runway 23, descent from 363 ft agl to 33 ft agl took 32 seconds. Stabilisation checks at 500 ft above the runway showed gear down, landing flap, sink rate and glideslope met, but speed was not met.
Landing was on runway 23, whose length is 1,866 m. The threshold speed was 109 kt, described as excessively high. The flare was noted as great, with the aircraft ballooning in the flare. Touchdown occurred 425 m down the runway at 89 kt, which was fast, with a touchdown rate of minus 250 fpm. Alignment on touchdown and during rollout was perfect, and no bounce occurred. Total landing distance was 819 m, 44 % of the runway, and rollout alignment remained perfect.
The local weather at landing was temperature 15 °C, wind 1 kt from 269°, with a 1 kt cross-wind and a 1 kt head-wind. The entire flight covered 9 nm in 4 minutes and used 3 kg of fuel.
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