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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Arrival
Fly a steeper descent on final so you cross the threshold at 50 ft agl instead of 73 ft agl.
What happened: The aircraft crossed the threshold at 73 ft agl against a 50 ft agl target, well above the normal profile. The touchdown point was also long at 1,162 m against a 457 m target, a pattern often seen after high threshold crossings.
Watch for: Radio altimeter against the 50 ft threshold crossing target on short final.
Ground effect becomes significant below about one wingspan of height. A Cessna 172, with a 36 ft span, enters ground effect at flare height - the float it feels in the hold-off is ground effect arriving on cue. An A320, with a span around 117 ft, has been in ground effect since before the threshold and there is no sudden cushion to feel, only a gradual reduction in induced drag that lengthens any float you allow.
Read more in Flare TimingStart to finish · 15 stages, 13 in the score
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From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Rotated at 138 kt, 3 kt below the 141 kt target, and lifted off at 156 kt 3.2 s later, the nose coming up at 2.4° a second. Climb 3 held close to its 179 kt target, at 179 kt on average.
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 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 929 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 2,197 m of runway left; gear up at 70 ft, inside the 400 ft that gets full marks; then climbing at 3,300 fpm on average to 929 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 3,595 m runway.
Rolled from 93 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 5.5 m at the widest, and lifted off 5.8 m left, in 5 kn of crosswind from the left. Airborne 30 % 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 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 1° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 4 nm 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. 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 22× larger than distances along the final.
Inside the 1° band all the way from 4 nm, never more than 17 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 33 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 20 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between +3 kt and +14 kt on the approach speed of 133 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 tracked the target profile closely. The aircraft floated down the runway before touching. Touchdown was 1,162 m past the threshold. Threshold speed was not the cause here - hold the aim point on the approach and let the aircraft settle rather than holding it off, and the touchdown comes back to the numbers.
6 kt across from the left, which takes about 3° of crab to hold the centreline at 122 kt. Touched down with 2° of it still on, wings level.
Wind 160° at 7 kt · 2 kt head · 6 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 118 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 29 s, an average deceleration of 0.16 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 2,177 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 73 ft, 23 ft above the 50 ft target; began the flare at 40 ft. Touched down 1,162 m in, 858 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 2,177 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 360 fpm at the flare to 100 fpm at 4 ft, then back up to 290 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 1.7° 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 2,177 m of the 2,690 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 6.2 m left of the centreline and drifted to 16 m left on the rollout, back to 3.1 m left by the end.
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 1,162 m past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The Boeing 737-800 taxied from the parking area to runway 34 at LOWW Vienna International Airport, a taxi of 16 minutes covering 3 nm.
Take-off was on runway 34, using 1,082 m (30 % of the runway). Rotation occurred at 138 kt. Local weather was 12 °C, wind 14 kt from 319°, giving a 6 kt crosswind and a 13 kt headwind.
The aircraft climbed to 1,000 ft agl in 15 seconds, averaging 2,625 fpm and reaching 181 kt at the top of the initial climb.
Climb continued from 1,644 ft asl to 37,557 ft asl in 18 minutes, covering 117 nm, starting overhead LOWW.
Level cruise was at 38,000 ft asl for 30 minutes, covering 214 nm, starting overhead Tyn nad Vltavou.
Descent began from 37,535 ft asl to 1,518 ft asl in 31 minutes, covering 160 nm, beginning 2 miles west of Grebenau.
Final approach to runway 23L at EDDL Düsseldorf Airport descended from 1,425 ft agl to 121 ft agl in 105 seconds. Stabilisation checks at 1,000 ft and 500 ft above the runway were met for gear down, landing flap, sink rate, glideslope, centreline, speed and wings level. Configuration was landing gear down at 3,558 ft agl, 193 kt; final flap position 8 at 1,252 ft agl, 150 kt.
Landing on runway 23L (runway length 2,690 m) had a threshold height of 73 ft agl, above target, and a threshold speed of 140 kt, slightly above target. The flare was described as perfect; the aircraft floated before touchdown.
Touchdown occurred 738 m beyond the touchdown zone, at a speed of 122 kt, with a rate of -287 fpm. The touchdown point was misaligned by 6.2 m from the centreline. No bounce was observed.
Total landing distance was 2,086 m, 78 % of the runway. Runway rollout alignment was misaligned by 15.7 m from the centreline. Local weather at landing was 11 °C, wind 7 kt from 160°, giving a 7 kt crosswind and a 2 kt headwind.
After landing, the aircraft taxied to the parking area in 13 minutes, covering less than 1 nm.
The flight covered 501 nm in 106 minutes and used 3,777 kg of fuel.
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