Events
Events
Events
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 · 16 stages, 14 in the score
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 63 kt with 2.0° 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 700 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,225 m of runway left; then climbing at 1,200 fpm on average to 700 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 1,814 m runway.
Rolled from 272 m in, never more than 1.5 m off the centreline. Airborne 19 % 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.
Right-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 75 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: 878 ft against 1,000 ft, 122 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 WorkEarly: turned base with the threshold 56° behind, against 45°.
Base. Turn 90 degrees towards the runway when the threshold sits about 45 degrees behind your shoulder. Descend at around 80 kt with second-stage flap. The geometry of that 45-degree cue isn't arbitrary. It produces a base leg long enough to lose roughly 500 ft at about 500 fpm before the final turn. Once you know that's what the cue is for, you can derive your own turn point for any aircraft and any speed.
Read more in Pattern WorkGood: full marks on the turn.
Over the threshold
Touchdown
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 2° right of the track, wings level.
Wind 268° at 3 kt · 3 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 34 ft, 16 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 763 m in, 458 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 600 fpm at 32 ft to 20 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 7.1° 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 1,814 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 1.5 m right of the centreline, and stayed within 1.9 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 763 m past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The 1.07 G arrival bounced 4 times.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a departure roll from runway 23 at EGPE Inverness Airport. The aircraft, a Sting S4, required a takeoff distance of 120 meters, which is 7% of the runway length. The liftoff speed was achieved at 64 knots. At the time of departure, the local weather conditions were characterized by a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 3 knots from a direction of 268 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 2 knots and a headwind of 3 knots.
As the aircraft entered the right-hand pattern from runway 23, it covered a distance of less than 1 nautical mile in 19 seconds. The subsequent right-hand pattern crosswind leg was completed in less than 1 nautical mile in 9 seconds. The pattern downwind turn was made at an angle of 78.2 degrees to the runway, covering a distance of 1 nautical mile. The downwind leg itself took 54 seconds to complete, covering a distance of 1 nautical mile.
The pattern base leg turn was made at an angle of 56.0 degrees to the runway, covering a distance of 1 nautical mile. The base leg was completed in less than 1 nautical mile in 11 seconds. The final turn was made in less than 1 nautical mile in 23 seconds. The aircraft then began its final approach to runway 23 from the north-east, heading 231.0 degrees at an altitude of 0 nautical miles and 94 feet above ground level.
The landing on runway 23 was characterized by a touchdown point that was 350 meters beyond the touchdown zone. The touchdown speed was excessively fast at 48 knots, but the touchdown rate was perfect at -26 feet per minute. The runway touchdown alignment was also perfect. The local weather conditions remained the same, with a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 3 knots from a direction of 268 degrees.
The total landing distance was 969 meters, which is 53% of the runway length. The runway rollout alignment was perfect. The total flight distance was 4 nautical miles, taking 3 minutes to complete, and the aircraft used 0 kilograms of fuel during the flight.
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