Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Improve the pattern downwind leg
The 45-degrees-behind-the-wing cue assumes you can turn your head and use peripheral vision. Downwind spacing cues like "put the wingtip halfway up the strut" assume a fixed, known eyepoint. Neither survives a monitor unmodified. If you fly on a fixed monitor, stop pretending and fly a numbers-based circuit.
Read more in Pattern WorkStart to finish · 11 stages, 11 in the score
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 65 kt with 2.2° 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 460 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,185 m of runway left; then climbing at 720 fpm on average to 460 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 2,737 m runway.
Rolled from 1,325 m in, drifted right of the centreline, 1.9 m at the widest, and lifted off 1.9 m right. Airborne 48 % 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, 0.8 nm out at 82 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.
Off heading: 11° from the leg's heading on average.
Each lap slightly wider and higher than the last, because you're unconsciously using the previous lap as your reference instead of the runway and the numbers. Invisible lap to lap, unmistakable across ten. This is the failure that only measurement catches, because your memory of lap three is gone by lap eight.
Read more in Pattern WorkTurn onto downwind: scored 0.
The 45-degrees-behind-the-wing cue assumes you can turn your head and use peripheral vision. Downwind spacing cues like "put the wingtip halfway up the strut" assume a fixed, known eyepoint. Neither survives a monitor unmodified. If you fly on a fixed monitor, stop pretending and fly a numbers-based circuit.
Read more in Pattern WorkLate: turned base with the threshold 17° behind, against 45°.
The stopwatch. From abeam the threshold, fly roughly 30 to 45 seconds before turning base, in nil wind at 172 speeds. Treat that as a starting value and calibrate it. If your finals keep coming out at 400 ft instead of 500, add a few seconds. Then adjust for wind, roughly a second per knot of headwind on final (a headwind on final is a tailwind on downwind, carrying you further from the field per second).
Read more in Pattern WorkThe final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3.5° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 0.8 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 150 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: 3.5° here, which is about 370 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.
Joined 391 m left of the centreline at 0.8 nm.
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 35 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 21 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between −3 kt and +4 kt on the approach speed of 70 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
Great landing flare
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 269° at 2 kt · 2 kt head · 1 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.
Side view — the last 1,524 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 36 ft, 14 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 539 m in, 234 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 490 fpm at 34 ft to 40 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 11.5° 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 2,737 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline.
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.
Touched down 539 m past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a departure roll from runway 30 at EGPK Glasgow Prestwick Airport. The aircraft, a PA38 Tomahawk, accelerated down the runway and lifted off at a speed of 66 kt, requiring a takeoff distance of just 22 meters, which is only 1% of the runway's length. The local weather conditions at the time of takeoff were characterized by a temperature of 15 °C and a gentle wind blowing at 5 kt from a direction of 270 °. This resulted in a crosswind of 3 kt and a headwind of 4 kt.
After taking off, the pilot entered a left-hand pattern, navigating the aircraft around the airport. The entry into the pattern was smooth, with the aircraft covering a distance of less than 1 nm in just 18 seconds. As the pilot continued with the pattern, a left-hand crosswind turn was executed, which took approximately 25 seconds to complete and covered a distance of less than 1 nm. The pilot then proceeded to the downwind leg, where a turn was made to align the aircraft with the runway. This turn covered a distance of 1 nm and involved a change in direction of 81.1 °.
The downwind leg itself was 2 nm long and took 85 seconds to complete. Following this, the pilot initiated the base leg turn, which covered a distance of 1 nm and involved a change in direction of 16.9 °. With the aircraft now aligned with the runway, the pilot began the final approach, descending from an altitude of 211 ft agl and heading towards the runway at a speed of 68 kt. The approach was made from the south east, with the aircraft aligned with the runway at a heading of 300.0 °.
The landing itself was smooth, with the aircraft touching down 94 meters beyond the touchdown zone. The touchdown speed was 36 kt, which was within the acceptable range, and the touchdown rate was perfect at -22 fpm. The runway touchdown alignment was also perfect, indicating that the pilot had successfully controlled the aircraft during the final stages of the approach. The local weather conditions at the time of landing remained the same as they were at takeoff, with a temperature of 15 °C and a wind blowing at 5 kt from a direction of 270 °.
In terms of the flight's performance, the total distance covered was 5 nm, and the flight took a total of 5 minutes to complete. Notably, the aircraft used no fuel during the flight, indicating that the pilot had executed the flight with precision and control. Overall, the flight was a success, with the pilot demonstrating excellent flying skills and control of the aircraft throughout the entire flight.
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