Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Improve the pattern base leg turn
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 WorkStart to finish · 15 stages, 13 in the score
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 54 kt with 2.2° 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 977 ft. The distance scale changes past the runway end.
Reached 35 ft with 658 m of runway left; then climbing at 950 fpm on average to 977 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 1,053 m runway.
Rolled from 137 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 6.3 m at the widest, and lifted off 4.5 m left. Airborne 21 % 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.
Left-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, 0.8 nm out at 79 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.
Off heading: 10° from the leg's heading on average.
Each lap slightly wider and higher than the last, because you're unconsciously using the previous lap as your reference instead of the runway and the numbers. Invisible lap to lap, unmistakable across ten. This is the failure that only measurement catches, because your memory of lap three is gone by lap eight.
Read more in Pattern WorkLow on downwind: 669 ft against 1,000 ft, 331 ft below.
Descending on downwind. Power comes back abeam, the aircraft isn't re-trimmed, your eyes are outside judging the turn point, and 100 ft leaks away before base. Shows up as a low gate 2, and everything after it is a scramble.
Read more in Pattern WorkLost marks: scored 70.
One stabilised approach gate for a circuit: six checks where the approach path is 300 ft above the runway. The 1,000 ft gate is an instrument-approach check and does not apply.
At the 300 ft gate: centreline more than 1° off.
When the approach was stable
Never every check met at once: right of the centreline all the way, fast all the way, banked all the way, high until 0.4 nm and sinking too fast until 0.3 nm.
Each line is one of the gate checks, run along the whole final rather than only at the gates: green where it would have passed, amber where it would not. The glideslope, centreline and speed lines use the bands in the charts beside this card. The sink rate is allowed what the glideslope needs at your ground speed plus 600 fpm, the wings 10° of bank, and the gear and flap are read from when you moved the levers. The bottom line is green where every check held at once, ignoring blips shorter than 0.2 nm, and the sentence above it says from where it held to the threshold. A ring is a stabilisation gate, where the checks in the table were taken.
The final from 4 nm, with the stabilisation gates on it.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
High from 0.6 nm, where the final began, to 0.4 nm (up to 280 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. A ring is a stabilisation gate: green when every check there passed, amber with the failed checks named beside it.
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 178 m right of the centreline at 0.6 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 25 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 15 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 0.6 nm, where the final began, to the threshold (up to +34 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
Perfect landing flare
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 4° left of the track, 4° of bank.
Wind 053° at 1 kt · 1 kt tail · 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 45 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 7 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 1,053 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 29 ft, 21 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 209 m in, 96 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 1,053 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 490 fpm at 28 ft to 220 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 5.0° 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 1,053 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 3.9 m left of the centreline and drifted to 7.5 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 209 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The flight began with the aircraft, a Sting S4, taxiing from the parking area to the runway at 4N1 Greenwood Lake. This process took approximately 2 minutes and covered a distance of less than 1 nautical mile. Once at the runway, the aircraft took off from runway 24, with a takeoff distance of 110 meters, which is 10% of the runway's length. The liftoff speed was 55 knots.
The local weather conditions at the time of takeoff were characterized by a temperature of 15°C, with a wind speed of 1 knot at 54°. There was no crosswind, but a slight tailwind of 1 knot. After taking off, the aircraft entered a left-hand pattern, which involved a turn from the runway 24 at 4N1 Greenwood Lake. This turn covered a distance of 1 nautical mile in 13 seconds.
As the aircraft continued in the left-hand pattern, it encountered a crosswind from runway 24 at 4N1 Greenwood Lake. The distance covered during this phase was less than 1 nautical mile in 20 seconds. The pattern then involved a downwind turn, which covered a distance of 1 nautical mile and had an angle to the runway of 45 degrees, with a turn angle of 34.5 degrees.
The downwind leg of the pattern covered a distance of 2 nautical miles in 88 seconds. Following this, the aircraft entered a base leg turn, which covered a distance of 1 nautical mile and had an angle to the runway of 45 degrees, with a turn angle of 10.1 degrees. The final approach to the runway 24 at 4N1 Greenwood Lake was made from the north-east, with a heading of 218.0° at an altitude of 191 feet above ground level.
The landing on runway 24 at 4N1 Greenwood Lake was successful, with a threshold height that was good and a threshold speed of 52 knots. The touchdown distance was also good, at 206 meters. However, the touchdown speed of 39 knots was a little fast, and the touchdown rate was smooth at -122 feet per minute. The runway touchdown position was slightly misaligned from the centreline by 3.9 meters.
The local weather conditions at the time of landing were characterized by a temperature of 16°C, with a wind speed of 1 knot at 53°. There was no crosswind, but a slight tailwind of 1 knot. The total landing distance was 322 meters, which is 31% of the runway's length. The runway rollout alignment was very good. The total flight distance was 7 nautical miles, which was covered in 8 minutes, and the aircraft used 0 kilograms of fuel during the flight.
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