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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 · 13 stages, 11 in the score
Events
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From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 69 kt with 4.9° 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 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 386 ft. The distance scale changes past the runway end.
Reached 35 ft with 110 m of runway left; then climbing at 650 fpm on average to 386 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 777 m runway.
Rolled from 98 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 2.9 m at the widest, and lifted off 1.7 m right. Airborne 67 % 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 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 0.7 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 80 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 131 m right of the centreline at 0.7 nm.
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 78 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 48 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between −10 kt and +13 kt on the approach speed of 60 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
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 2° left of the track, wings level.
Wind 217° at 1 kt · 0 kt tail · 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 52 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 28 s, an average deceleration of 0.04 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 917 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 8 ft, 42 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 104 m in, 201 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 917 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 110 fpm at 8 ft to 20 fpm at 7 ft, then back up to 220 fpm at touchdown. The nose went down 0.8° 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 917 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline and drifted to 13 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 104 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a departure roll from runway 26 at Saanen Airfield, LSGK. The Cessna C182 aircraft accelerated down the 438-meter runway, covering 56% of its length, before lifting off at a speed of 70 knots. The local weather conditions at the time of takeoff were characterized by a temperature of 19 degrees Celsius and a gentle wind of 2 knots from 207 degrees, resulting in a 1-knot headwind and a negligible crosswind.
As the aircraft climbed away from the airfield, it began its enroute climb, which started overhead Rougemont in the Canton de Vaud, Switzerland. The aircraft ascended from an initial altitude of 3,716 feet above sea level to a maximum altitude of 7,599 feet, a vertical gain of 3,883 feet, in just 5 minutes. During this climb, the aircraft covered a distance of 5 nautical miles.
After reaching its cruising altitude, the aircraft began its enroute descent, which started 3 miles west of Zweisimmen in the Canton de Berne, Switzerland. The descent from 7,590 feet to 3,490 feet, a vertical loss of 4,100 feet, took 4 minutes to complete, during which the aircraft covered a distance of 7 nautical miles.
The final approach to runway 32 at Sankt Stephan Airfield, LSTS, was made from the southeast, heading 313.0 degrees, at an altitude of 172 feet above ground level. The aircraft touched down on the runway, which was 917 meters long, with a threshold speed that was slightly below the target speed of 53 knots. The touchdown distance was good, at 102 meters, and the touchdown speed was also satisfactory, at 48 knots.
However, the touchdown rate was fair, at -218 feet per minute, and the runway touchdown alignment was perfect. The local weather conditions at the time of landing were similar to those at takeoff, with a temperature of 19 degrees Celsius and a gentle wind of 1 knot from 216 degrees, resulting in a negligible crosswind and a 0-knot headwind.
The total landing distance was 653 meters, which was 71% of the runway length. The runway rollout alignment was slightly misaligned from the centerline, by 13.8 meters. The aircraft taxied to the parking area from the runway in just 1 minute, covering a distance of less than 1 nautical mile.
The total flight distance was 13 nautical miles, and the flight duration was 12 minutes. The aircraft used a total of 5 kilograms of fuel during the flight.
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