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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Work on the flare
See Arrival Landing
Trim is the hidden variable. In trim, the flare is a small refinement to an aircraft already in equilibrium, a couple of millimetres of stick. Out of trim, you're holding a constant force all the way down final, and the flare becomes a large, badly judged movement stacked on top of a load you're already carrying. A striking proportion of "I can't judge the flare" complaints are trim complaints wearing a disguise. If you're holding pressure at 500 feet, fix that before you practise anything else.
Read more in How to Land a Plane Smoothly in Microsoft Flight SimulatorStart to finish · 18 stages, 16 in the score
Events
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Events
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Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 170 kt with 7.7° 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 959 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,059 m of runway left; then climbing at 2,030 fpm on average to 959 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 2,925 m runway.
Rolled from 74 m in, drifted right of the centreline, 20 m at the widest, and lifted off 20 m right, in 15 kn of crosswind from the right. Airborne 53 % 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 3° glideslope, with its 1° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 4 nm 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 28× larger than distances along the final.
Inside the 1° band all the way from 4 nm, never more than 13 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.
Speed against the approach speed. The green band runs from 5 kt slow to 32 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 18 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between −3 kt and +15 kt on the approach speed of 144 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
14 kt across from the right, which takes about 6° of crab to hold the centreline at 136 kt. Touched down with 6° of it still on, wings level.
Wind 200° at 17 kt · 8 kt head · 14 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 129 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 37 s, an average deceleration of 0.14 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 1,617 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 79 ft, 29 ft above the 50 ft target. Touched down 580 m in, 275 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 1,617 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 680 fpm at 77 ft to 350 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 first 1,617 m of the 2,124 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 2.8 m left of the centreline, and stayed about there down the rollout, 3.6 m right at the widest.
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 580 m past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a taxiing period from the parking to the runway, which took 11 minutes and covered a distance of 3 nautical miles. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-900, then departed from runway 24L at Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. The takeoff distance was 1,483 meters, which accounted for 51% of the runway. The liftoff speed was 170 knots.
The local weather conditions at the time of departure were characterized by a temperature of 6 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 19 knots from a direction of 280 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 16 knots and a headwind of 11 knots. The aircraft then began its enroute climb, which started overhead Dorval, Quebec, Canada. The climb took the aircraft from an altitude of 1,119 feet above sea level to 31,239 feet above sea level, an increase of 30,121 feet, in 18 minutes and covering a distance of 113 nautical miles.
Following the enroute climb, the aircraft entered a level cruise phase, which started 11 miles southwest of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Canada. This phase lasted for 84 minutes and covered a distance of 646 nautical miles. The aircraft then began its enroute descent, which started 13 miles northeast of Grand Bank, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The descent took the aircraft from an altitude of 32,033 feet above sea level to 1,743 feet above sea level, a decrease of 30,289 feet, in 23 minutes and covering a distance of 116 nautical miles.
The final approach to runway 16 at St. John's International Airport was made from the northwest, heading 139.0 degrees at an altitude of 4 nautical miles and 1,291 feet above ground level. The landing was made on runway 16, which had a length of 2,124 meters. The threshold height at 79 feet above ground level was well above the target, and the threshold speed was good at 141 knots. The touchdown point was 141 meters beyond the touchdown zone, and the touchdown speed was 136 knots, which was good. The touchdown rate was firm at -347 feet per minute.
The runway touchdown position was slightly misaligned by 3.3 meters from the centerline. The local weather conditions at the time of landing were characterized by a temperature of 18 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 17 knots from a direction of 199 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 15 knots and a headwind of 8 knots. The total landing distance was 1,513 meters, which accounted for 71% of the runway. The runway rollout alignment was very good.
The taxiing period from the runway to the parking took 3 minutes and covered a distance of less than 1 nautical mile. The total flight distance was 885 nautical miles, and the flight duration was 139 minutes. The aircraft used 6,375 kilograms of fuel during the flight.
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