Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Use smaller, smoother aileron inputs to hold the climb bank angle near wings-level.
What happened: During Climb 3 the bank angle averaged 18°, well beyond a steady wings-level climb.
Watch for: Attitude indicator - bank angle, keeping it close to wings-level through the climb.
Arrival
Steepen the descent on final to rejoin the glideslope, aiming to cross the threshold at 50 ft.
What happened: The approach drifted above the glideslope, carrying the aircraft across the threshold at 89 ft against the 50 ft target. Crossing the threshold high like this usually carries the touchdown point long.
Watch for: Watch radio altitude against 50 ft on short final to confirm the glidepath is recaptured before the threshold.
Preparing for a stable approach will give you time to decide on whether to attempt the landing or going around. Too much altitude with a high sink rate will result in carrying too much speed onto the runway. Configuring flaps and the gear late also won't help the speed decay.
Read more in The Stabilised ApproachStart to finish · 17 stages, 15 in the score
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Rotated at 88 kt, 3 kt below the 91 kt target, and lifted off at 95 kt 2.5 s later, the nose coming up at 3.2° a second. Climb 3 averaged 154 kt, 7 kt under its 161 kt target.
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 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 525 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 2,017 m of runway left; gear up at 20 ft, inside the 400 ft that gets full marks; then climbing at 950 fpm on average to 525 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 gear-up ring is coloured by its mark. The shaded stretch is Climb 3, scored on its average speed against the target.
Plan view the roll down the 2,745 m runway.
Rolled from 80 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 5.6 m at the widest, and lifted off 3.9 m right, in 13 kn of crosswind from the right. Airborne 19 % 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.
One stabilised approach gate: five checks where the approach path is 500 ft above the runway. The 1,000 ft gate was not assessed, because the approach did not join final that far out. These checks are the approach's score.
At the 500 ft gate: sink rate more than 600 fpm beyond what the glideslope needed, glideslope more than 1° off the runway's 3° and speed more than 14 kt above the approach speed of 94 kt.
Still turning onto final at the lower gate, so the centreline and wings level are not asked there - the aeroplane was not lined up yet, and was banked because it was turning. The other checks are marked as usual.
When the approach was stable
Never every check met at once: high all the way, banked until 1.5 nm, fast until 1.0 nm, sinking too fast until 0.4 nm and left of the centreline until 0.3 nm.
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 1° band in green.
High from 1.8 nm, where the final began, to the threshold (up to 1,140 ft over).
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.
Inside the 1° band from 1.8 nm, where the final began, to 0.7 nm, then drifted 29 m left between 0.7 and 0.3 nm, then inside the band from 0.3 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 24 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 14 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 1.8 nm, where the final began, to 1.0 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 tracked the target profile exactly. The aircraft floated down the runway before touching. Touchdown was 968 m past the threshold. Threshold speed was not the cause here - hold the aim point on the approach and let the aircraft settle rather than holding it off, and the touchdown comes back to the numbers.
7 kt across from the right, which takes about 5° of crab to hold the centreline at 82 kt. Touched down with the nose 8° into wind, wings level.
Wind 260° at 13 kt · 10 kt head · 7 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 85 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 11 s, an average deceleration of 0.32 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 89 ft, 39 ft above the 50 ft target; began the flare at 36 ft. Touched down 968 m in, 663 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 630 fpm at the flare to 110 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 1.5° 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 2,745 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 9.6 m left of the centreline, and steered back to 0.5 m left by the end of 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.
Touched down 968 m past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The aircraft taxied from the parking area to runway 21 at KGCN Grand Canyon National Park Airport in a period of 5 minutes, covering less than 1 nm.
During the departure roll on runway 21 the aircraft used a takeoff distance of 545 m, representing 20 % of the runway, and lifted off at 96 kt; ambient conditions were 29 °C with wind 23 kt at 260 °, a cross-wind component of 15 kt and a head-wind component of 18 kt.
The initial climb began overhead KGCN, climbing from 6,946 ft asl to 8,280 ft asl, an increase of 1,334 ft in 1 minutes while covering 5 nm.
A subsequent climb commenced 3 miles north-east of Grand Canyon, rising from 5,681 ft asl to 7,848 ft asl, an increase of 2,167 ft in 3 minutes and covering 12 nm.
The aircraft then entered a level cruise segment that started 7 miles north of Grand Canyon, lasting 2 minutes and covering 5 nm.
A later climb started 2 miles north of Grand Canyon, climbing from 7,521 ft asl to 7,383 ft asl, an increase of 138 ft in 3 minutes while covering 8 nm.
Descent began 1 mile north of Tusayan, descending from 8,284 ft asl to 5,993 ft asl, a decrease of 2,291 ft in 2 minutes and covering 6 nm.
The final approach to runway 21 was flown from the north-east on a heading of 221.0 ° at 1 nm and 816 ft agl, followed by a descent from 1,583 ft agl to -21 ft agl in 59 seconds; the approach was scored on the stabilisation gates.
Landing on runway 21 occurred with a runway length of 2,743 m; the threshold height at 89 ft agl and the threshold speed of 102 kt were both significantly above target. Touchdown was recorded 539 m beyond the touchdown zone at a speed of 82 kt, with a touchdown rate of minus 159 fpm and a lateral deviation of 9.2 m from the centreline. Weather at the time was 28 °C with wind 17 kt at 260 °, a cross-wind of 11 kt and a head-wind of 13 kt. Total landing distance measured 1,279 m, representing 47 % of the runway.
Runway rollout alignment was slightly misaligned by 9.0 m from the centreline.
The aircraft taxied from the runway to the parking area in 3 minutes, covering less than 1 nm.
In total the flight covered 42 nm, lasted 17 minutes and consumed 78 kg of fuel.
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