Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Know your rotation speed
See Departure Roll
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, 14 in the score
Events
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 76 kt with 4.0° 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 159 ft.
Reached 35 ft at the runway end; then climbing at 810 fpm on average to 159 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 849 m runway.
Rolled from 440 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 2.9 m at the widest, and lifted off 2.6 m left. Airborne 76 % of the way down the runway, past 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.
One stabilised approach gate: seven checks where the approach path is 500 ft above the runway. The 1,000 ft gate was not assessed, because the approach did not join final that far out.
At the 500 ft gate: speed more than 19 kt above the approach speed of 62 kt.
When the approach was stable
Every check met from 0.8 nm, about 280 ft above the runway, to the threshold, after the 500 ft gate. The last to settle was the speed.
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 530 ft below 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 14× larger than distances along the final.
Inside the 1° band all the way from 4 nm, never more than 26 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 31 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 19 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 4 nm to 0.8 nm (up to +86 kt), then inside the band to the threshold.
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
Excellent landing flare
Little crosswind (2 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 6° left of the track, wings level.
Wind 270° at 3 kt · 1 kt head · 2 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 54 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 19 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 46 ft, close to the 50 ft target. Touched down 433 m in, 128 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 460 fpm at 43 ft to 120 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 4.2° 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 2,682 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 2.6 m right of the centreline, and stayed about there down the rollout, 3.2 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 arrow beside the runway is the crosswind, pointing the way the air was moving, so it pushed the aircraft that way.
The 433 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The 1.18 G arrival bounced.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a departure roll from runway 22 at 24S Pinehurst State Airport. The aircraft, a VL-3 915, accelerated down the runway and lifted off at a speed of 77 kt, covering 207 m or 24% of the runway. The local weather conditions at the time of takeoff were characterized by a temperature of 16 °C and a wind speed of 2 kt from 270°, resulting in a headwind of 2 kt and a crosswind of 1 kt.
As the aircraft climbed away from the airport, it began its enroute climb, which started overhead the airport. The aircraft ascended from an initial altitude of 3,810 ft above sea level to a maximum altitude of 5,873 ft, a gain of 2,063 ft in just 4 minutes, covering a distance of 8 nm. The climb was followed by an enroute descent, which began 1 mile northeast of 31BA DOCILF Barrons Ranch. The aircraft descended from 6,005 ft asl to 2,298 ft asl, a decrease of 3,707 ft in 3 minutes, also covering a distance of 8 nm.
The enroute level cruise phase of the flight started 1 mile north of Ashland and lasted for 4 minutes, during which the aircraft covered a distance of 7 nm. The final approach to runway 32 at KMFR Rogue Valley International Medford Airport was made from the southeast, with the aircraft heading 339.0° at an altitude of 825 ft above ground level and a distance of 4 nm from the runway threshold.
The landing on runway 32 was characterized by a threshold speed that was excessively high at 70 kt, but the touchdown distance was good at 431 m, and the touchdown speed of 50 kt was fast. However, the touchdown rate was smooth at -101 fpm. The runway touchdown position was slightly misaligned from the centreline by 3.2 m. The local weather conditions at the time of landing were similar to those at takeoff, with a temperature of 15 °C and a wind speed of 2 kt from 270°, resulting in a headwind of 1 kt and a crosswind of 2 kt.
The total landing distance was 856 m, which accounted for 32% of the runway length. The runway rollout alignment was very good, indicating a smooth and controlled descent. The taxiing to the parking area from the runway took 7 minutes and covered a distance of less than 1 nm. The total flight distance was 27 nm, and the flight duration was 18 minutes, during which the aircraft used 5 kg of fuel.
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