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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Apply small rudder corrections against a point at the far end of the runway to hold the centreline during the roll.
What happened: The aircraft tracked 17 m off the runway centreline during the ground roll, and flights with this pattern usually carry extra bank, around 3.9°, into the first climb.
Watch for: Heading indicator: wings level, tracking the runway centreline
Arrival
Fly a steeper descent on final so you cross the threshold at 50 ft agl instead of 68 ft agl.
What happened: The aircraft crossed the threshold at 68 ft agl against a 50 ft agl target, well above the normal profile. The touchdown point was also long at 929 m against a 457 m target, a pattern often seen after high threshold crossings.
Watch for: Radio altimeter against the 50 ft threshold crossing target on short final.
Ground effect becomes significant below about one wingspan of height. A Cessna 172, with a 36 ft span, enters ground effect at flare height - the float it feels in the hold-off is ground effect arriving on cue. An A320, with a span around 117 ft, has been in ground effect since before the threshold and there is no sudden cushion to feel, only a gradual reduction in induced drag that lengthens any float you allow.
Read more in Flare TimingStart to finish · 15 stages, 13 in the score
Events
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From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Rotated at 149 kt, 3 kt above the 146 kt target, and lifted off at 157 kt 3.3 s later, the nose coming up at 2.3° a second. Climb 3 averaged 191 kt, 8 kt over its 183 kt target.
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 dashed green line is the speed to rotate at for this aircraft at its weight, and the green dot is where the nose started to come up. The figures at liftoff are the pitch then and how fast the nose came up, in degrees a second. The shaded stretch is Climb 3, the part of the climb scored on holding the climb speed.
The takeoff, point by point
Side view from the start of the roll to the end of Climb 3 at 883 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,296 m of runway left; gear up at 70 ft, inside the 400 ft that gets full marks; then climbing at 1,610 fpm on average to 883 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. The gear-up ring is coloured by its mark. The shaded stretch is Climb 3, scored on its average speed against the target.
Plan view the roll down the 3,371 m runway.
Rolled from the start of the runway, drifted left of the centreline, 18 m at the widest, and lifted off 18 m left, in 7 kn of crosswind from the left. Airborne 40 % 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.
Two stabilised approach gates, each with seven checks, where the approach path is 1,000 ft and 500 ft above the runway. They are the approach's score: the checks passed out of the checks that ran.
When the approach was stable
Every check met from 4 nm 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 1° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 4 nm to the threshold, never more than 150 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, 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 21× larger than distances along the final.
Inside the 1° band all the way from 4 nm, never more than 18 m 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 36 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 21 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between −3 kt and +8 kt on the approach speed of 142 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 aircraft was flown onto the runway - pitch changed 1.1° and the descent was barely arrested. Touchdown was 929 m past the threshold. Start the flare with progressive back pressure rather than one pull, and keep it coming.
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 180° at 17 kt · 17 kt head · 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 133 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 36 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 1,905 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 68 ft, 18 ft above the 50 ft target; began the flare at 28 ft. Touched down 929 m in, 624 m past 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 1,905 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 360 fpm at the flare to 80 fpm at 16 ft, then back up to 410 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 0.6° 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 1,905 m of the 4,885 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 9.1 m left of the centreline, and steered back to 4.5 m left by the end of 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.
Touched down 929 m past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The 406 fpm arrival was firm.
The rest of the report
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 taxied from the parking area to runway 28L at KSFO San Francisco International Airport. The taxi-out required 2 minutes and covered less than 1 nm.
The aircraft commenced its departure roll on runway 28L at KSFO, using 1,376 m of runway, which represented 41 % of the available length. Liftoff was achieved at 158 kt. Local weather reported a temperature of 24 °C, wind 29 kt from 280°, with a 9 kt crosswind component and a 27 kt headwind.
Climb began overhead San Bruno, California, with the aircraft ascending from 963 ft asl to 36,788 ft asl, an increase of 35,826 ft achieved in 20 minutes while covering 141 nm.
Cruise commenced 2 miles north-east of T38 Homewood Lake Tahoe, California, and persisted for 73 minutes, during which the flight covered 620 nm.
Descent started 4 miles west of 1CD4 Eagle Soaring Airport Steam Boat Springs, Colorado, with the aircraft descending from 37,002 ft asl to 6,663 ft asl, a decrease of 30,338 ft in 20 minutes and covering 125 nm.
The final approach to runway 16R at KDEN Denver International Airport was executed from the north, heading 181.0° at 4 nm and 1,326 ft agl.
Landing on runway 16R at KDEN, whose length is 4,883 m, occurred with a threshold height of 68 ft agl and a threshold speed of 145 kt. Touchdown was recorded 513 m beyond the touchdown zone at a speed of 134 kt, with a touchdown rate of minus 291 fpm. The runway touchdown position was misaligned by 10.1 m from centreline. Local weather at the time was 28 °C, wind 17 kt from 180°, with no crosswind and a 17 kt headwind.
The total landing distance measured 1,825 m, representing 37 % of the runway, and the rollout was slightly misaligned by 9.6 m from centreline.
The aircraft taxied to the parking area from the runway in 7 minutes, covering 2 nm.
Overall, the flight covered a total distance of 894nm, took 126, and consumed 4,377 kg of fuel.
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