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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Keep the approach speed on target
See Arrival 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 · 19 stages, 17 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 79 kt with 3.6° of pitch. Climb 3 averaged 107 kt, 7 kt under its 114 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 872 ft. The distance scale changes past the runway end.
Reached 35 ft with 219 m of runway left; gear up at 126 ft, inside the 400 ft that gets full marks; then climbing at 1,160 fpm on average to 872 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 gear-up ring is coloured by its mark. The shaded stretch is Climb 3, scored on its average speed against the target.
Plan view the roll down the 894 m runway.
Rolled from 39 m in, drifted 1.6 m left of the centreline and was back on it to lift off, in 12 kn of crosswind from the left. Airborne 39 % 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.
Two stabilised approach gates, each with seven checks, where the approach path is 1,000 ft and 500 ft above the runway. They are the approach's score: the checks passed out of the checks that ran.
When the approach was stable
Every check met from 4 nm to 2.6 nm, then not again: fast from 2.6 nm to the threshold.
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 80 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. 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 9× larger than distances along the final.
Inside the 1° band all the way from 4 nm, never more than 39 m 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.
Speed against the approach speed. The green band runs from 5 kt slow to 39 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 23 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band from 4 nm to 2.6 nm, then fast to the threshold (up to +43 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 mostly held the target profile. The flare was pumped rather than held: pitch changed direction 4 times on the way down. Touchdown was 618 m past the threshold. One smooth continuous input - chasing the runway with the elevator makes the next correction bigger, not smaller.
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 2° right of the track, wings level.
Wind 210° at 17 kt · 17 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.
From 59 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 6 s, an average deceleration of 0.29 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 37 ft, 25 m before the threshold; crossed the threshold at 34 ft, 16 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 618 m in, 313 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 340 fpm at the flare to 130 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 2.6° 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 2,153 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline, and stayed within 1.1 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 arrow beside the runway is the crosswind, pointing the way the air was moving, so it pushed the aircraft that way.
Touched down 618 m past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The 1.14 G arrival bounced.
The rest of the report
Departing from Dry Creek Airpark (OG21), the Beechcraft Bonanza began its journey with a taxiing period of 5 minutes, covering less than 1 nautical mile to reach the runway. Runway 25 was selected for departure, and the aircraft accelerated down the 365-meter takeoff distance, which represented 41% of the available runway length. Liftoff speed was achieved at 79 knots, and the aircraft quickly gained altitude.
As the aircraft climbed away from the airfield, it encountered a local weather pattern characterized by a temperature of 16°C and a wind of 13 knots from 206°. The crosswind component was 12 knots, while the headwind component was 6 knots. The enroute climb phase began 1 mile west of the airfield, and the aircraft ascended from 4,503 feet above sea level to 8,725 feet, a gain of 4,222 feet in just 4 minutes, covering a distance of 9 nautical miles. Following a 59-minute level cruise at an altitude of 8,725 feet, the aircraft began its enroute descent 1 mile southeast of Waitsburg, Washington. The descent phase saw the aircraft lose 1,973 feet in altitude over a distance of 7 nautical miles in 4 minutes, ultimately reaching a level of 2,493 feet above sea level.
The final approach to runway 20 at Walla Walla Regional Airport (KALW) was initiated from the northeast, with the aircraft heading 216° at 4 nautical miles and 1,329 feet above ground level. The landing was executed with a threshold speed that was slightly too high at 100 knots, and the touchdown speed of 74 knots was also a little fast. However, the touchdown rate of -155 feet per minute was satisfactory, and the runway touchdown alignment was perfect. The total landing distance of 732 meters, representing 34% of the available runway length, was acceptable. Following a taxiing period of 2 minutes, the aircraft arrived at the parking area, having completed a total flight distance of 194 nautical miles in 78 minutes, with a fuel consumption of 53 kilograms.
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