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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Ease back pressure in smoothly as you approach 65 kt, holding a steady rotation rate rather than snatching the controls.
What happened: On the takeoff roll the aircraft bounced before becoming fully airborne.
Watch for: Attitude indicator: a smooth, continuous pitch-up through liftoff with no secondary bounce.
See Departure Roll
The 45-degrees-behind-the-wing cue assumes you can turn your head and use peripheral vision. Downwind spacing cues like "put the wingtip halfway up the strut" assume a fixed, known eyepoint. Neither survives a monitor unmodified. If you fly on a fixed monitor, stop pretending and fly a numbers-based circuit.
Read more in Pattern WorkStart to finish · 19 stages, 17 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 68 kt with 0.0° 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 452 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 3,878 ft of runway left; then climbing at 870 fpm on average to 452 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 5,502 ft runway.
Rolled from 453 ft in, drifted 7 ft right of the centreline and was back on it to lift off. Airborne 18 % 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, 0.9 nm out at 88 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.
Early: turned crosswind at 582 ft. US guidance is within 300 ft of circuit height, 700 ft here, so the climb ends on downwind.
Crosswind. Turn 90 degrees when you're within about 300 ft of pattern altitude, which at a standard field means roughly 700 ft AGL, or two-thirds of the way up. That rule exists for a reason worth knowing. It means you finish the climb and level off on downwind, wings level, rather than trying to capture an altitude mid-turn. If you turn crosswind at pattern altitude instead, you arrive on downwind still cleaning up, and the abeam point catches you unconfigured.
Read more in Pattern WorkLow on downwind: 813 ft against 1,000 ft, 187 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 WorkLate: turned base with the threshold 33° behind, against 45°.
The stopwatch. From abeam the threshold, fly roughly 30 to 45 seconds before turning base, in nil wind at 172 speeds. Treat that as a starting value and calibrate it. If your finals keep coming out at 400 ft instead of 500, add a few seconds. Then adjust for wind, roughly a second per knot of headwind on final (a headwind on final is a tailwind on downwind, carrying you further from the field per second).
Read more in Pattern WorkGood: full marks on the turn.
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 500 ft gate: centreline more than 1° off and wings more than 10° from level.
When the approach was stable
Every check met from 1.7 nm, where the final began, to the threshold.
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.
Inside the glideslope band from 1.7 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 30 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, 1,000 ft 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.
Inside the 1° band all the way from 1.7 nm, never more than 680 ft off the centreline.
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 29 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 17 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between +3 kt and +14 kt on the approach speed of 58 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
Calm: nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
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 53 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 17 s, an average deceleration of 0.07 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 5,000 ft of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 41 ft, close to the 50 ft target. Touched down 1,141 ft in, close to the ideal 1,000 ft.
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 5,000 ft across. The dashed line is the ideal, 50 ft over the threshold and down 1,000 ft 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 410 fpm at 40 ft to 70 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 3.4° 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 5,000 ft of the 5,502 ft runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline, and stayed within 6 ft of it down 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 1,141 ft touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a taxiing period from the parking area to the runway, which took approximately 2 minutes and covered a distance of less than 1 nautical mile. The aircraft, a PA28 Warrior II, then departed from runway 02 at KUZA Rock Hill - York County Airport. The takeoff distance was 737 feet, which accounted for 13% of the runway length. The liftoff speed was 68 knots.
After takeoff, the aircraft entered a left-hand pattern, beginning with a turn from the runway. This turn covered a distance of less than 1 nautical mile in 26 seconds. The aircraft then proceeded to the crosswind leg, which was also a left-hand turn and covered a distance of less than 1 nautical mile in 32 seconds. The downwind leg was a significant portion of the pattern, covering 3 nautical miles in 101 seconds. The downwind turn was a 45-degree angle to the runway, with a distance of 1 nautical mile and an angle of 77.8 degrees.
The base leg turn was another 45-degree angle to the runway, with a distance of 2 nautical miles. The base leg itself was a short distance of less than 1 nautical mile, covered in 28 seconds. The final turn was a short distance of less than 1 nautical mile, covered in 33 seconds. The aircraft then began its final approach to runway 02, flying from the south at a heading of 11.0 degrees and an altitude of 426 feet above ground level.
The landing was successful, with a threshold height that was good and a threshold speed that was slightly below the target at 61 knots. The touchdown distance was 1,131 feet, which was good, and the touchdown speed was 52 knots, also good. The touchdown rate was excellent at -60 feet per minute, and the runway touchdown alignment was perfect. The local weather conditions were a temperature of 54 degrees Fahrenheit.
After landing, the aircraft taxied to the parking area, which took approximately 2 minutes and covered a distance of less than 1 nautical mile. The total flight distance was 9 nautical miles, and the flight used 4 pounds of fuel. The total landing distance was 2,238 feet, which accounted for 41% of the runway length. The runway rollout alignment was perfect, indicating a smooth and controlled landing.
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