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Arrival
Add power on final to keep the approach speed at 43 kt rather than letting it decay before the threshold.
What happened: The aircraft crossed the threshold at 33 kt, 10 kt below the target, and touchdown followed with a firm, high sink rate arrival. Crossing the threshold slow like this usually carries through to a firmer touchdown as the flare runs out of energy.
Watch for: Airspeed indicator: 43 kt at the threshold.
Every knot above Vref is stored kinetic energy, and energy stored at the threshold must be dissipated in ground effect before the aeroplane will stop flying. Because kinetic energy scales with the square of speed, the excess you must dissipate grows fast. At a 45-knot approach, five knots hot is over a tenth more speed and roughly a quarter more energy to get rid of in ground effect. This is why the fix is never in the flare. It was decided three miles earlier, on final, at the airspeed indicator.
Read more in VRef ExplainedStart to finish · 15 stages, 13 in the score
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 24 kt with 12.3° 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 takeoff, point by point
Side view from the start of the roll to 469 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 632 m of runway left; then climbing at 760 fpm on average to 469 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.
Plan view the roll down the 906 m runway.
Rolled from 36 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 3.4 m at the widest, and lifted off 2.3 m left. Airborne 11 % 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.
Right-hand, 1,000 ft circuit height. The plan shows your circuit over a textbook one for this runway; the profile unrolls the same path from liftoff to the threshold.
Plan landing direction to the left; in pale blue the textbook circuit for your downwind speed, 0.7 nm out at 73 kt
The lap from above, with the landing direction to the left: the opposite of the runway drawings. The wide pale-blue line is a textbook circuit for your downwind speed - the downwind a mile out for every 100 kt, every turn at 30° of bank - and your track is drawn over it, each leg in the colour of its mark. The numbers are the four turns, the same as on the profile and the cards below. The 45° line from the threshold is the usual point to turn onto base.
Around the circuit height and bank; the turns are shaded
The same lap straightened out, so the height and the bank can be read together. Each shaded stretch is a turn, numbered as on the plan. The green box is circuit height, 1,000 ft, on the downwind. The amber line is 30° of bank, and a turn's steepest bank shows red above 32°. "Turn crosswind from" is the lowest height to start the first turn at.
Good: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
Good: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
Off heading: 7° from the leg's heading on average.
Bank angle in the pattern is conventionally kept to 20 to 30 degrees, and the base-to-final turn is where that convention earns its keep. Stall speed rises with bank because the wing must produce more lift in a turn. Roughly 7 per cent higher at 30 degrees, about 19 per cent at 45, and around 40 per cent at 60. At 65 kt on base you don't have much margin to spend steepening a turn to salvage an overshoot.
Read more in Pattern WorkGood: full marks on the turn.
The final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
High from 1.3 nm, where the final began, to 0.3 nm (up to 620 ft over), then back on it to the threshold.
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 5× larger than distances along the final.
Joined 68 m left of the centreline at 1.3 nm, then inside the band from 0.8 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 22 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 13 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 1.3 nm, where the final began, to the threshold (up to +28 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
The flare wandered off the target profile. The flare began at 7 ft agl above the runway, lower than this aircraft wants. Touchdown was 104 m past the threshold. Begin raising the nose earlier - a late flare leaves no time to arrest the sink.
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 8° right of the track, wings level.
Wind 270° at 2 kt · 1 kt head · 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 35 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 2 s, an average deceleration of 0.12 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 906 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 9 ft, 41 ft below the 50 ft target; began the flare late, at 7 ft. 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 906 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 100 fpm at the flare to 30 fpm at 6 ft, then back up to 220 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 2.8° 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 906 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 14 m left of the centreline, and stayed about there down the rollout, 13 m left 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.
The 104 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The 217 fpm arrival was firm.
The rest of the report
The Taylorcraft BC-12D taxied to runway 22 at EGHN Isle of Wight / Sandown Airport and commenced the departure roll. The take-off run consumed 111 m, representing 12 % of the available runway, and the aircraft lifted off at 25 kt. Ambient conditions were 15 °C with a wind of 2 kt from 270°, including a 1 kt cross-wind and a 1 kt head-wind component.
During the climb the aircraft entered a right-hand pattern from runway 22, covering less than 1 nm in 27 seconds. The subsequent right-hand cross-wind leg was also under 1 nm and required 12 seconds. A downwind turn of 1 nm was executed at a 61.2° angle to the runway, followed by a downwind leg of 2 nm completed in 78 seconds. The base-leg turn spanned 1 nm at a 26.5° angle, after which the base leg itself was less than 1 nm and lasted 11 seconds. The final turn to the approach course covered less than 1 nm in 23 seconds.
The descent phase began on final approach to runway 22, with the aircraft descending from 961 ft AGL to 18 ft AGL in 67 seconds. The descent was recorded as having scored on the stabilisation gates.
On final approach the aircraft maintained the same weather parameters-15 °C, wind 2 kt from 270° with 1 kt cross-wind and 1 kt head-wind-as earlier in the flight. The approach was completed without deviation, positioning the aircraft for touchdown.
Landing was achieved on runway 22, whose length is 906 m. The threshold speed of 33 kt was well below the target, and the aircraft touched down 101 m from the threshold at 25 kt with a smooth vertical speed of minus 147 fpm. The touchdown point was offset 13.7 m from the centreline, and the total landing roll measured 137 m, equivalent to 15 % of the runway.
Rollout continued with the aircraft remaining slightly off-centreline by 13.7 m as it decelerated along the runway.
In summary, the flight covered a total distance of 5 nm, required 4 minutes of elapsed time, and consumed 1 kg of fuel.
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