Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Arrival
Add power on short final to hold 62 kt over the threshold, so the approach is not slow to begin with.
What happened: Threshold speed was 10 kt below target, and the nose was then held well above this type's ground attitude at touchdown; arriving slow like this usually leaves the flare short of energy and ends in a firm touchdown at 220 fpm.
Watch for: Airspeed indicator: 62 kt at the threshold.
You crossed the threshold slow. Without the speed there is little energy left to round out with, so the flare comes up short and the touchdown tends to be firm - and that feels exactly like flaring too late. Resist the fix that feels natural, flaring earlier: it bleeds off more speed and makes the next landing firmer still. Fly the approach speed all the way to the threshold, and the flare has something to work with.
Read more in Flare TimingStart to finish · 16 stages, 13 in the score
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Rotated at 46 kt, 7 kt below the 53 kt target, and lifted off at 56 kt 2.3 s later, the nose coming up at 1.5° a second.
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 takeoff, point by point
Side view from the start of the roll to 89 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 85 m of runway left.
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 612 m runway.
Rolled from 47 m in, never more than 1.1 m off the centreline. 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.
Left-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, 1 nm out at 97 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.
Off heading: 10° from the leg's heading on average.
Each lap slightly wider and higher than the last, because you're unconsciously using the previous lap as your reference instead of the runway and the numbers. Invisible lap to lap, unmistakable across ten. This is the failure that only measurement catches, because your memory of lap three is gone by lap eight.
Read more in Pattern WorkHigh on downwind: 1,150 ft against 1,000 ft, 150 ft above.
Downwind. Parallel to the runway, opposite the landing direction, at pattern altitude and roughly 90 kt. The single most important moment of the entire circuit is the point abeam your intended touchdown point. Power back (around 1,700 RPM in a 172 works as a starting value to calibrate), first stage of flap, pre-landing flow, and re-trim. Everything from abeam to touchdown is one continuous energy problem. Arrive at the abeam point high or fast and you'll pay for it ninety seconds later in the flare, which is why analysing only the touchdown so often misdiagnoses the fault.
Read more in Pattern WorkGood: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
Good: full marks on the turn.
The final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 1.2 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 210 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 191 m left of the centreline at 1.2 nm, then inside the band from 1.0 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 31 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 19 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 1.2 nm, where the final began, to 0.5 nm (up to +20 kt), then inside the band to the threshold.
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 wandered off the target profile. Pitch reached 10.3° at touchdown, well above this aircraft's ground attitude. Touchdown was 119 m past the threshold. That is tail strike territory - stop the rotation once the sink is arrested.
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 5° left of the track, wings level.
Wind 270° at 1 kt · 1 kt head · 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.
From 52 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 16 s, an average deceleration of 0.08 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 612 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 21 ft, 29 ft below the 50 ft target; began the flare at 20 ft. Touched down 119 m in, 186 m short of 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 612 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 470 fpm at the flare to 220 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 6.0° 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 612 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline, and stayed within 1.4 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 119 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The 220 fpm arrival was firm.
The rest of the report
The Cessna 172 departed from runway 28L at EGCJ Sherburn-In-Elmet Airfield, accelerating through a takeoff roll of 319 m which represented 52 % of the available runway. Liftoff was achieved at 56 kt. Ambient conditions were 15 °C with a wind of 1 kt from 270°, giving a head-wind component of 1 kt and no cross-wind.
The aircraft entered the left-hand traffic pattern from runway 28L, covering a distance of less than 1 nm in 42 seconds.
Continuing the left-hand pattern, the crosswind leg spanned less than 1 nm and was completed in 33 seconds.
During the downwind turn the aircraft flew 1 nm while turning to a 45° heading, achieving an angle to the runway of 65.3°.
The downwind leg extended 2 nm and was flown in 59 seconds.
The base-leg turn covered 2 nm with a 45° heading change, producing an angle to the runway of 34.8°.
The base leg itself was less than 1 nm and was completed in 22 seconds.
The final turn to the approach course was less than 1 nm and required 25 seconds.
On final approach to runway 28L the aircraft descended from 656 ft AGL to 33 ft AGL in 58 seconds, meeting the stabilisation gate criteria.
Touchdown occurred on runway 28L, whose length is 612 m, with a threshold speed of 52 kt, slightly below the target. The aircraft landed 117 m from the threshold at 44 kt and a vertical speed of minus 260 fpm; runway alignment at touchdown was perfect. The total landing distance recorded was 426 m, representing 70 % of the runway, and rollout alignment remained perfect.
In total the flight covered 6 nm, required approximately 5 minutes, and consumed 2 kg of fuel.
Scroll or drag the slider to zoom · double-click to reset · hover for values