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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Avoid steep turns at low altitude
Below a thousand feet the aeroplane is slow, heavy and close to the ground. A steep turn loses lift, raises the stall speed and flattens the climb just when the gradient matters most. A normal turn on course is a rate one — fifteen degrees or so, twenty-five at the outside, this penalty is to acknowledge when a turn has stopped being a turn and become a manoeuvre.
Read more in Improve Your Take-OffsStart to finish · 22 stages, 20 in the score
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From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 95 kt with 5.5° 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 957 ft. The distance scale changes past the runway end.
Reached 35 ft with 771 m of runway left; then climbing at 960 fpm on average to 957 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 2,030 m runway.
Rolled from 370 m in, drifted 3.4 m left of the centreline and was back on it to lift off. 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 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 4 nm to the threshold, never more than 370 ft below 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 from 4 nm to 0.3 nm, then 11 m left of it 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 78 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 48 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band from 4 nm to 1.5 nm, then fast to 1.1 nm (up to +46 kt), then inside the band to 0.3 nm, then fast to the threshold (up to +17 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
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 270° at 6 kt · 6 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 77 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 12 s, an average deceleration of 0.23 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 38 ft, 12 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 543 m in, 238 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 250 fpm at 37 ft to 100 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 2.2° 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 1,835 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 6.8 m left of the centreline, and steered back to 1.1 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.
Touched down 543 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 approximately 3 minutes and covered less than 1 nautical mile. The aircraft, a Cessna 414A, then departed from runway 26 at Exeter International Airport (EGTE). The takeoff distance was 729 meters, which accounted for 36% of the runway. The liftoff speed was 96 knots.
The local weather conditions at the time of departure were characterized by a temperature of 19 degrees Celsius, with a wind speed of 6 knots at 220 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 4 knots and a headwind of 5 knots. The aircraft climbed to an altitude of 23,104 feet above sea level (asl) over Clyst Honiton in Devon, England, after which it entered a level cruise phase.
During the enroute climb, the aircraft ascended from 1,072 feet asl to 23,104 feet asl, covering a distance of 52 nautical miles in 19 minutes. The climb was a significant increase of 22,033 feet. The level cruise phase started 1 mile east of Pimperne in Dorset, England, and lasted for 76 minutes, covering a distance of 320 nautical miles.
The aircraft then began its descent over Erpeldange in Diekirch, Luxembourg, and continued to descend to 9,985 feet asl in 9 minutes, covering 38 nautical miles. The descent phase was followed by a brief level cruise phase over Vaudreching in Grand Est, France, which lasted for 2 minutes and covered 5 nautical miles.
The aircraft then began its descent again over Coume in Grand Est, France, and descended from 9,734 feet asl to 4,464 feet asl in 5 minutes, covering 19 nautical miles. The level cruise phase started 2 miles east of Saarbruecken in Saarland, Germany, and lasted for 3 minutes, covering 10 nautical miles.
The final descent phase began 2 miles northwest of Zweibruecken in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, and the aircraft descended from 4,002 feet asl to 2,020 feet asl in 4 minutes, covering 6 nautical miles. The aircraft then began its final approach to runway 27 at Saarbrücken Airport (EDDR) from the east, heading 267.0 degrees at 4 nautical miles and 979 feet above ground level (agl).
The landing on runway 27 at EDDR Saarbrücken Airport was successful, with a touchdown point 103 meters beyond the touchdown zone. The touchdown speed was 81 knots, which was a little fast, but the touchdown rate was smooth at -104 feet per minute. The runway touchdown position was slightly misaligned by 6.8 meters from the centerline. The local weather conditions at the time of landing were characterized by a temperature of 16 degrees Celsius, with a wind speed of 6 knots at 270 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 0 knots and a headwind of 6 knots.
The total landing distance was 825 meters, which accounted for 45% of the runway. The runway rollout alignment was very good. The taxiing period from the runway to the parking took approximately 1 minute and covered less than 1 nautical mile. The total flight distance was 456 nautical miles, and the flight duration was 130 minutes. The aircraft used 245 kilograms of fuel during the flight.
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