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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 · 20 stages, 18 in the score
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From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 102 kt with 2.6° 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 607 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 340 m of runway left; then climbing at 1,610 fpm on average to 607 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 924 m runway.
Rolled from the start of the runway, drifted right of the centreline, 5.1 m at the widest, and lifted off 5.3 m right, in 10 kn of crosswind from the right. Airborne 44 % 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.
The final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 4° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 4 nm to the threshold, never more than 580 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: 4° here, which is about 420 ft for every nautical mile out, crossing the threshold at about 70 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 18× larger than distances along the final.
Inside the 1° band all the way from 4 nm, never more than 21 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.
Over the threshold
Touchdown
3 kt across from the left, which takes about 2° of crab to hold the centreline at 100 kt. Touched down with the nose 4° into wind, wings level.
Wind 241° at 8 kt · 7 kt head · 3 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 1,006 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 27 ft, 23 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 289 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 1,006 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 390 fpm at 25 ft to 210 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 0.9° 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 full 1,006 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 3.8 m right of the centreline and drifted to 12 m left on 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.
The 289 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The 1.26 G arrival bounced.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a taxiing period from the parking to the runway, which took 6 minutes and covered less than 1 nautical mile. The aircraft, a Cockspur C510, then departed from runway 24 at La Môle Airport, with a takeoff distance of 516 meters, which was 56% of the runway length. The liftoff speed was 103 knots.
The local weather conditions at the time of departure were a temperature of 15°C, with a wind speed of 15 knots at 285 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 11 knots and a headwind of 11 knots. The aircraft then began its enroute climb, starting overhead La Môle, and climbed from 717 feet above sea level to 30,958 feet above sea level, an increase of 30,241 feet in 16 minutes, covering a distance of 48 nautical miles.
The enroute level cruise started 1 mile northeast of Annot, and lasted for 30 minutes, covering a distance of 280 nautical miles. The aircraft then began its enroute descent, starting 1 mile east of Renchen, and descended from 30,779 feet above sea level to 4,631 feet above sea level, a decrease of 26,148 feet in 11 minutes, covering a distance of 57 nautical miles.
The enroute level cruise started 1 mile southeast of Neckarsteinach, and lasted for 2 minutes, covering a distance of 5 nautical miles. The aircraft then began its final descent, starting overhead Heddesbach, and descended from 4,621 feet above sea level to 1,449 feet above sea level, a decrease of 3,171 feet in 3 minutes, covering a distance of 8 nautical miles.
The final approach to runway 27 at Mannheim-City Airport was from the east, with a heading of 273.0 degrees at 4 nautical miles and 1,132 feet above ground level. The landing was made on runway 27, which had a length of 1,006 meters. The threshold height was good, but the threshold speed was well above the target at 107 knots.
The touchdown distance was good at 288 meters, but the touchdown speed was too fast at 100 knots. The touchdown rate was fair at -213 feet per minute. The runway touchdown position was slightly misaligned by 4.3 meters from the centerline. The local weather conditions at the time of landing were a temperature of 1°C, with a wind speed of 8 knots at 240 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 4 knots and a headwind of 7 knots.
The total landing distance was 640 meters, which was 64% of the runway length. The runway rollout alignment was very good. The taxiing period from the runway to the parking took 1 minute and covered less than 1 nautical mile. The total flight distance was 404 nautical miles, taking 72 minutes, and the aircraft used 631 kilograms of fuel.
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