Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Ease the yoke smoothly to hold a steady one g through the ground roll instead of letting it sag to 0.7 g.
What happened: During the ground roll the g force averaged 0.7 g, well below the smooth steady load expected while tracking the runway.
Watch for: Watch the g meter and hold it steady near one g through the roll.
See Departure Roll
Arrival
Fly the flare as one continuous check of the sink rate from 22 ft, holding back pressure steadily rather than adjusting pitch piecemeal.
What happened: The flare drifted away from its intended profile rather than tracking it smoothly from 22 ft down to touchdown.
Watch for: Watch radio altitude and VSI through the flare, aiming to arrest the sink smoothly from 22 ft to touchdown.
See Arrival Landing
Arrive slow and the sink rate at the threshold is already above schedule, the flare is short because there is no energy to extend it, and the touchdown is hard in a way that feels exactly like a late flare. Diagnosing a slow arrival as a late flare is the catastrophic misread: you respond by flaring earlier, which bleeds more speed, which makes the next one worse. The tiebreaker is threshold speed against VRef, not feel. Never diagnose a flare without it.
Read more in Flare TimingStart to finish · 17 stages, 15 scored
Events
Events
The threshold, the flare and the hold-off. The approach that led to it is the stabilisation gates below.
One stabilised approach gate for a circuit: seven checks where the approach path is 500 ft above the runway. The 1,000 ft gate is an instrument-approach check and does not apply.
At the 1,000 ft gate: wings not level.
The approach, gate by gate
Side view — the last 1,524 m of the approach.
Plan view — the first 1,524 m of the 2,737 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 909 m past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The flight in question was conducted in a Piper Aerostar 600 aircraft with registration NI22PC. Taxiing from the parking area to the runway took significantly less than 1 minute, covering a distance of approximately less than 1 nautical mile. The departure roll took place on runway 30 at EGPK Glasgow Prestwick Airport, and the aircraft required a takeoff distance of 430 meters, accounting for 16% of the runway. According to the flight data, the liftoff speed was 96 knots.
The flight began with a right-hand pattern entry onto runway 30, which covered a distance of less than 1 nautical mile in 198 seconds. The subsequent right-hand pattern crosswind component was relatively minor, lasting just under 1 second. The pilot then entered a pattern downwind turn, covering approximately 5 nautical miles at an angle to the runway of 12.1 degrees. The subsequent downwind leg was short, spanning less than 1 nautical mile in just 14 seconds. The base leg turn also covered 5 nautical miles, with the aircraft positioned at an angle of 175.6 degrees to the runway.
As the aircraft began its final approach to runway 12 at EGPK Glasgow Prestwick Airport, it was headed in a northwest direction at an altitude of 831 feet above ground level (agl), approximately 3 nautical miles from the runway. At some point, the threshold height of the runway was significantly above the target altitude, while the touchdown speed was slightly above target at 101 knots.
Upon touchdown, the aircraft's performance was impressive, with a touchdown point located 474 meters beyond the designated touchdown zone. The actual landing was achieved at a speed of 73 knots, and the touchdown rate of -56 feet per minute was deemed to be excellent. However, the pilot did experience a slight misalignment of the runway touchdown position, deviating by 3.7 meters from the centerline. The local weather conditions remained consistent throughout the landing, with a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 2 knots from a bearing of 270 degrees.
The total landing distance covered a distance of 1,393 meters, accounting for 51% of the available runway length. Moreover, the runway rollout alignment was found to be very good. In summary, the total flight distance of approximately 9 nautical miles was covered in 9 minutes, with the aircraft burning approximately 10 kilograms of fuel.
On this particular instance of landing, Aircraft A2A NI22PC, a Piper Aerostar 600, successfully completed its landing on runway 12 at the Glasgow Prestwick Airport (EGPK). The crew executed the final approach from the north-west, maintaining a heading of 119.0° at an altitude of 831 feet above ground level (agl). At a distance of 3 nautical miles from the runway and at a height of 831 ft agl, the aircraft demonstrated good progress towards landing.
Once on the runway, the landing appeared to be generally successful, with a touchdown speed of 73 kt, which was within the acceptable limits and thus considered good. Additionally, the touchdown rate, calculated at -56 feet per minute (fpm), was also excellent, signifying the pilot's proficiency in maintaining a precise descent speed and rate during touchdown. Notably, the touchdown point was 474 meters beyond the designated touchdown zone.
However, a minor misalignment was observed, with the landing being 3.7 meters off from the centerline. Despite this slight deviation, the rollout alignment following the touchdown was commendable and described as very good. With a total landing distance of 1393 meters, the crew kept the aircraft well within the bounds of the runway. The landing was executed on a relatively calm day with temperatures of 15 °C, a light 2-kt wind at 270°, minimal crosswind, a small tailwind, and thus posed no unusual challenges to the crew.
It is worth noting that there were some minor deviations from the landing threshold height which was significantly above the target threshold height. Nevertheless, this is not considered detrimental to the safety of the aircraft and its passengers.
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