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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Improve the takeoff
See Departure Roll
The rudder input is a changing profile through the roll rather than one that is held. So the demand on your right foot starts large at power application, eases as speed builds and the rudder gains authority, then jumps again at rotation.
Read more in Improve Your Take-OffsStart to finish · 15 stages, 13 in the score
Events
Events
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From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 54 kt with 6.6° 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 198 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 2,457 ft of runway left; then climbing at 530 fpm on average to 198 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 1,832 ft in, drifted left of the centreline, 6 ft at the widest, and lifted off 4 ft right. Airborne 41 % 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.
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, 1.1 nm out at 105 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: 14° 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 WorkTurn onto downwind: scored 0.
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 WorkLate: turned base with the threshold 12° 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 WorkThe final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 0.9 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 160 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.
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 1,040 ft left of the centreline at 0.9 nm, then inside the band from 0.6 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 35 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 21 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 0.9 nm, where the final began, to 0.5 nm (up to +31 kt), then inside the band to the threshold.
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
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 2° left of the track, wings level.
Wind 225° at 3 kt · 2 kt tail · 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 64 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 11 s, an average deceleration of 0.16 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 28 ft, 22 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 938 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 500 fpm at 27 ft to 60 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 4.0° 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 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 4 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 arrow beside the runway is the crosswind, pointing the way the air was moving, so it pushed the aircraft that way.
The 938 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 Archer II, then departed from runway 02 at KUZA Rock Hill - York County Airport. The takeoff distance was 475 feet, which accounted for 9% of the runway length. The liftoff speed was 54 knots.
The local weather conditions at the time of takeoff were characterized by a temperature of 66 degrees Fahrenheit and a wind speed of 3 knots from a direction of 225 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 2 knots and a tailwind of 2 knots. Following the takeoff, the aircraft entered a left-hand pattern, which involved a turn from the runway. The distance covered during this turn was less than 1 nautical mile and took approximately 22 seconds.
The aircraft then proceeded to the downwind leg of the pattern, where it turned at an angle of 45 degrees to the runway. This turn covered a distance of 1 nautical mile and was completed at an angle of 87.7 degrees. The downwind leg itself was 2 nautical miles long and took 50 seconds to complete. The aircraft then turned onto the base leg, which involved a turn at an angle of 45 degrees to the runway. This turn covered a distance of 1 nautical mile and was completed at an angle of 12.1 degrees.
The final approach to the runway was made from the south, with the aircraft heading at 11.0 degrees and at an altitude of 176 feet above ground level. The landing was made on runway 02, which was 5,502 feet long. The threshold height was good, and the threshold speed was also satisfactory at 69 knots. The touchdown distance was 935 feet, which was good, and the touchdown speed was 60 knots, also considered good. The touchdown rate was excellent at -59 feet per minute, and the runway touchdown alignment was perfect.
The total landing distance was 1,717 feet, which accounted for 31% of the runway length. The runway rollout alignment was also perfect. The total flight distance was 5 nautical miles, and the flight took approximately 4 minutes to complete. The aircraft used 5 pounds of fuel during the flight.
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