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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Arrival
Begin the flare with progressive back pressure and keep it coming until the sink is arrested, rather than flying it on flat.
What happened: The nose was barely raised in the flare and little of the sink was taken out, flying the aircraft onto the runway. This pattern usually carries through to a firm touchdown with a noticeable sink rate.
Watch for: Vertical speed indicator: a smoothly reducing sink through the normal flare band, not a steady rate into the runway.
On a 3° glideslope your sink rate in feet per minute is roughly your groundspeed in knots times five (5.3, strictly). A Cessna 172 at 65 kt groundspeed is coming down at about 345 fpm. An A320 at 140 kt groundspeed is coming down at about 740 fpm. the entire job of the flare is to take that 350 to 750 fpm and reduce it to something in the normal band, in roughly the last five seconds of the flight.
Read more in How to Land a Plane Smoothly in Microsoft Flight SimulatorStart to finish · 14 stages, 12 in the score
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Taxi out
The roll
Rotated early
The nose came up at 148 kt, 7 kt before the 155 kt rotate speed.
The rotate speed is set for the weight and the flap, and the nose should not start up before it. Lifting it early brings the aircraft to its liftoff attitude with less speed in hand, and on a long fuselage that is the tail-strike case. Keep the hands still until the speed is there, then make one smooth, continuous pull.
Liftoff and climb
Plan view the roll down the 3,284 m runway.
Rolled from 60 m in, drifted right of the centreline, 3.3 m at the widest, and lifted off 1.7 m right. Airborne 48 % 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.
Side view from the start of the roll to 1,705 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,371 m of runway left; then climbing at 2,210 fpm on average to 1,705 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 dark stretch of the roll is the run with the nose up and the wheels still on, with its length and time under the runway.
Speed and pitch from brake release to the end of the climb, against time.
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 grey band is the run between the nose coming up and the wheels leaving the runway. The figures at liftoff are the pitch then and how fast the nose came up, in degrees a second. The rotation detail below draws the rotation against the rates for this aircraft and its tail-strike pitch, where the slope reads properly. The grey dashed line across the pitch is the attitude held from 35 ft to the end: a nose held steady is a climb speed that holds, and the airspeed trace sits directly above it to compare.
Rotation detail the pitch over the seconds from rotation to 35 ft, where the slope reads properly.
The pitch over the seconds from the nose starting to come up to 35 ft, stretched so the slope reads properly. The green dot is where the nose started up, the grey band runs to the wheels leaving, and the figures at liftoff are the pitch then and how fast the nose came up. The two dashed green lines rising from the rotation point are 2 to 3° a second, the rates airliners are rotated at: a trace steeper than both is a faster rotation, one shallower than both a slower one.
Right-hand, 1,500 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, 1.9 nm out at 194 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, 1,500 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 724 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 1° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 4 nm to the threshold, never more than 110 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 724 m left of the centreline, then inside the band from 0.4 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 36 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 22 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between −3 kt and +12 kt on the approach speed of 145 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
The flare wandered off the target profile
The aircraft was flown onto the runway - pitch changed 1.3° and the descent was barely arrested. Touchdown was 285 m past the threshold. Start the flare with progressive back pressure rather than one pull, and keep it coming.
Touchdown
Side view — the last 1,524 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 28 ft, 22 ft below the 50 ft target; began the flare at 14 ft. Touched down 285 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 510 fpm at the flare to 420 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 1.2° on the way down. Into the flare at 152 kt, 7 kt over the 145 kt approach speed, and 150 kt at touchdown.
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 3,284 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline. Little crosswind (2 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 8° left of the track, 2.1° of bank.
Wind 001° at 3 kt · 1 kt head · 2 kt across
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 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. The sentence gives the nose against the direction you were actually moving as the wheels touched, and the steepest bank as they touched, the figure the touchdown's Bank tile marks. The rest of it is shown for reading, not marked.
The 285 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The 415 fpm arrival was firm.
The rest of the report
The Airbus A350-1000 departed from runway 05R at NZAA Auckland International Airport. The take-off roll was 1,597 m, representing 49 % of the runway, and rotation occurred at 148 kt. Local weather at departure was 35 °C with wind 3 kt from 001°, giving a 3 kt crosswind and a 1 kt headwind.
Initial climb to 400 ft agl took 45 seconds, averaging 1,950 fpm and reaching 162 kt at the top of the climb. The aircraft then entered a right-hand circuit for runway 05R. The downwind leg was 8 nm and lasted 138 seconds at 1,470 ft agl; the base leg was less than 1 nm and lasted 13 seconds.
On final approach to runway 05R, descent was from 1,413 ft agl to 59 ft agl in 91 seconds. Stabilisation checks at 500 ft above the runway were met for gear down, landing flap, sink rate, glideslope, speed, and wings level; the centreline check was not met.
Landing was on runway 05R, whose length is 3,284 m. The threshold height was good and the threshold speed was slightly above target at 153 kt. The flare was described as a fair landing flare with little round-out. Touchdown occurred 285 m from the threshold at a speed of 150 kt, which was a little fast, and the rate of descent was hard at minus 415 fpm. Runway touchdown alignment was perfect, there was no bounce, and the local weather was 34 °C with wind 3 kt from 360°, giving a 3 kt crosswind and a 1 kt headwind.
The total flight covered 23 nm, lasted 7 minutes, and used 814 kg of fuel.
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