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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Ease back pressure in smoothly as you approach 68 kt, holding a steady rotation rate rather than snatching the controls.
What happened: On the takeoff roll the aircraft bounced before becoming fully airborne.
Watch for: Attitude indicator: a smooth, continuous pitch-up through liftoff with no secondary bounce.
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 · 11 stages, 10 in the score
Events
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Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 66 kt with 4.1° 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 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 406 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 2,096 m of runway left; then climbing at 320 fpm on average to 406 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 shaded stretch is Climb 3, scored on its average speed against the target.
Plan view the roll down the 2,737 m runway.
Rolled from 82 m in, drifted right of the centreline, 2.6 m at the widest, and lifted off 2.6 m right. Airborne 12 % 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.
One stabilised approach gate: seven checks where the approach path is 300 ft above the runway. The 1,000 ft gate was not assessed, because the approach did not join final that far out.
At the 300 ft gate: centreline more than 1° off.
When the approach was stable
Every check met from 0.6 nm, about 310 ft above the runway, to the threshold, after the 300 ft gate. The last to settle was the centreline.
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 1.4 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. 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 3× larger than distances along the final.
Joined 210 m right of the centreline at 1.4 nm, then inside the band from 0.6 nm to the threshold.
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 +6 kt and +16 kt on the approach speed of 65 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
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 270° at 1 kt · 1 kt tail · 0 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 53 ft, close to the 50 ft target. Touched down 394 m in, 89 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 450 fpm at 52 ft to 120 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 10.2° 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 2,737 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on 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 394 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
This flight was conducted in a DHC-2 Beaver aircraft, a small, single-engine plane. The aircraft taxied from the parking area to the runway at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, taking less than a minute and covering a distance of less than a nautical mile. The departure roll began on runway 30, and the takeoff distance was 329 meters, which is 12% of the runway's length. The liftoff speed was 67 knots, and the local weather conditions at the time were characterized by a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 1 knot from a direction of 270 degrees.
After takeoff, the aircraft entered a level cruise at an altitude of approximately 408 feet above ground level (agl) and a heading of 109.0 degrees. This phase of the flight lasted for 2 minutes and covered a distance of less than a nautical mile. The aircraft then began its final approach to runway 12 at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, which is located to the north-west of the airport.
The approach was conducted at an altitude of 408 feet agl and a distance of 1 nautical mile from the runway threshold. The aircraft touched down on the runway, which has a length of 2,737 meters. The touchdown distance was 392 meters, and the touchdown speed was 57 knots, both of which were considered good. The touchdown rate was smooth at -137 feet per minute (fpm), and the runway touchdown alignment was very good. The local weather conditions at the time of landing were similar to those at takeoff, with a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 1 knot from a direction of 269 degrees.
The total flight distance was 3 nautical miles, and the flight duration was 4 minutes. The aircraft used 5 kilograms of fuel during the flight. Overall, the flight was conducted in good weather conditions, and the pilot's performance was considered to be good.
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