Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Ease back pressure in smoothly as you approach 66 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
Arrival
Level off earlier after the climb-out, using a timely power reduction to join downwind at the correct circuit altitude.
What happened: The downwind leg was flown high, at 1,138 ft agl against the published circuit altitude.
Watch for: Altimeter: the published circuit altitude throughout the downwind leg.
See Pattern Downwind
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 · 15 stages, 13 in the score
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 65 kt with 1.9° 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 takeoff, point by point
Side view from the start of the roll to 761 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,359 m of runway left; then climbing at 1,080 fpm on average to 761 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.
Plan view the roll down the 1,866 m runway.
Rolled from 64 m in, never more than 0.9 m off the centreline. Airborne 11 % 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.
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, 0.9 nm out at 95 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.
Good: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
High on downwind: 1,138 ft against 1,000 ft, 138 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 0.9 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 30 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 6× larger than distances along the final.
Joined 26 m right of the centreline at 0.9 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 38 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 23 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between −3 kt and +2 kt on the approach speed of 75 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
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 270° at 2 kt · 2 kt head · 1 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 58 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 11 s, an average deceleration of 0.15 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 1,524 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 24 ft, 26 ft below the 50 ft target; began the flare at 24 ft. Touched down 357 m in, 52 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 470 fpm at the flare to 90 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 3.6° 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 1,866 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline, and stayed within 0.7 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 arrow beside the runway is the crosswind, pointing the way the air was moving, so it pushed the aircraft that way.
The 357 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The Piper PA-28-236 Dakota taxied to runway 23 at EGPE Inverness Airport and commenced the departure roll, covering a takeoff distance of 297 m which represented 16 % of the available runway. Liftoff was achieved at 66 kt while the ambient temperature was 15 °C, wind 2 kt from 269°, with a 1 kt cross-wind component and a 2 kt head-wind component.
The aircraft entered a left-hand pattern from runway 23, flying a distance of less than 1 nm in 23 seconds.
Continuing the left-hand pattern, the cross-wind leg was flown for less than 1 nm in 20 seconds.
During the downwind turn the aircraft covered 1 nm and established an angle to the runway of 84.7° measured from the 45-degree reference.
The downwind leg was maintained for 1 nm and required 52 seconds to complete.
A base-turn maneuver followed, again spanning 1 nm and producing an angle to the runway of 48.0° from the 45-degree reference.
The base leg was flown for less than 1 nm and was completed in 24 seconds.
The final turn to the runway was executed over a distance of less than 1 nm in 21 seconds.
On final approach to runway 23 the aircraft descended from 344 ft AGL to 31 ft AGL in 41 seconds, meeting the stabilisation gates; weather conditions remained temperature 15 °C, wind 2 kt from 270°, with a 1 kt cross-wind and a 2 kt head-wind.
Touchdown occurred on runway 23, whose length is 1,866 m, with a threshold speed of 74 kt. The aircraft landed 356 m from the threshold at 59 kt, achieving a touchdown rate of minus 58 fpm and perfect runway alignment; the total landing distance was 585 m, representing 31 % of the runway.
Runway rollout alignment was perfect as the aircraft decelerated and exited the runway.
In total the flight covered 6 nm, required approximately 5 minutes, and consumed 2 kg of fuel.
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