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 82 kt, 21 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 108 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.
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 · 12 stages, 12 in the score
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Rotated at 82 kt, 21 kt below the 103 kt target, and lifted off at 107 kt 4.5 s later, the nose coming up at 0.7° 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 589 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,045 m of runway left; then climbing at 1,320 fpm on average to 589 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 32 m in, drifted 1.7 m left of the centreline and was back on it to lift off. Airborne 28 % 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, 1.1 nm out at 113 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.
Good: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
Good: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
Overshot: went 125 m through the centreline turning final.
Overshooting final. A tailwind component on base sweeps you through the extended centreline, the instinctive correction is to steepen the bank and, when that's not enough, to skid the turn with rudder. In a real aircraft this is the base-to-final stall-spin scenario that kills people. The sim under-punishes it, because a spring yoke transmits no lightening of control force, there's no buffet through your hands, and no seat-of-the-pants sensation of the skid. You get the numbers of the skidded turn without the feel of it. The correct response is the same in both worlds and needs practising until it's reflexive. Don't steepen past 30 degrees, and if you've blown through the centreline, go around and reset.
Read more in Pattern WorkThe final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 1.0 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 90 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.
Joined 125 m right of the centreline at 1.0 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 38 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 23 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 1.0 nm, where the final began, to the threshold (up to +37 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
Perfect landing flare
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 1° right of the track, wings level.
Wind 270° 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.
Began the flare at 45 ft, 68 m before the threshold; crossed the threshold at 32 ft, 18 ft below the 50 ft target. 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 680 fpm at the flare to 150 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 1.8° 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 4.1 m right of 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.
The 328 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The Lancair Legacy taxied to runway 23 at EGPE Inverness Airport and departed from that runway. Takeoff used 622 m of runway, 33 % of the available length, and liftoff occurred at 108 kt. Local weather at departure was temperature 16 °C, wind 2 kt from 269°, with a 1 kt cross-wind and a 2 kt head-wind.
Initial climb to 400 ft AGL took 24 seconds, averaging 1,251 fpm and reaching 127 kt at the top of the climb. The aircraft then entered a left-hand circuit for runway 23. The downwind leg was 2 nm long and was flown in 57 seconds at 910 ft AGL. The base leg was less than 1 nm and was completed in 29 seconds.
Landing was on runway 23 at EGPE Inverness Airport, whose length is 1,866 m and which had a good threshold height. The threshold speed was 108 kt, described as excessively high. The flare was noted as a perfect landing flare. Touchdown occurred 328 m down the runway, with a touchdown speed of 103 kt, described as excessively fast, and a smooth touchdown rate of minus 147 fpm. The aircraft touched down slightly misaligned, 4.1 m from the centreline. No bounce occurred on touchdown and the rollout was completed without incident. Local weather at landing was temperature 16 °C, wind 2 kt from 270°, with a 1 kt cross-wind and a 2 kt head-wind.
The total flight covered 7 nm, lasted 4 minutes and consumed 3 kg of fuel.
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