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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Track the centreline on final
See Arrival Final 1
Preparing for a stable approach will give you time to decide on whether to attempt the landing or going around. Too much altitude with a high sink rate will result in carrying too much speed onto the runway. Configuring flaps and the gear late also won't help the speed decay.
Read more in The Stabilised ApproachStart to finish · 16 stages, 14 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 102 kt with 3.1° 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 128 ft.
Reached 35 ft 564 ft past the runway end; then climbing at 620 fpm on average to 128 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 2,667 ft runway.
Rolled from 297 ft in, drifted 24 ft left of the centreline and was back on it to lift off. Airborne 69 % 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, 1.7 nm out at 165 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.
Off heading: 16° from the leg's heading on average.
Spacing cues are relative to your eyepoint, so two simmers with different FOV settings following the same wingtip cue fly patterns half a mile different in width, and a wide FOV compresses depth so the runway on base looks further away than it is, biasing you towards a late turn. Pick a camera position and FOV, save it, and never change it, because every judgement you calibrate is calibrated to that picture.
Read more in Pattern WorkOff 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 WorkOvershot: went 2,386 ft through the centreline turning final.
Overshooting final. A tailwind component on base sweeps you through the extended centreline, the instinctive correction is to steepen the bank and, when that's not enough, to skid the turn with rudder. In a real aircraft this is the base-to-final stall-spin scenario that kills people. The sim under-punishes it, because a spring yoke transmits no lightening of control force, there's no buffet through your hands, and no seat-of-the-pants sensation of the skid. You get the numbers of the skidded turn without the feel of it. The correct response is the same in both worlds and needs practising until it's reflexive. Don't steepen past 30 degrees, and if you've blown through the centreline, go around and reset.
Read more in Pattern WorkThe final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
High from 1.1 nm, where the final began, to 0.5 nm (up to 690 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, 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 2,390 ft right of the centreline at 1.1 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 78 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 48 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 1.1 nm, where the final began, to the threshold (up to +57 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
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 135° at 6 kt · 5 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 88 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 15 s, an average deceleration of 0.22 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 2,667 ft of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 11 ft, 39 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 644 ft in, 356 ft short of 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 2,667 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 450 fpm at 11 ft to 10 fpm at 8 ft, then back up to 320 fpm at touchdown. The nose went down 2.5° 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 2,667 ft runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 15 ft left of the centreline, and steered back to 1 ft 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.
The 644 ft touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The 1.32 G arrival bounced.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a departure roll from runway 28 at NC08 Tusquittee Landing Airport, where the aircraft, a Spitfire Mk IX, accelerated down the 1,730-foot runway, covering 65% of its length before lifting off at a speed of 102 knots. The local weather conditions at the time of takeoff were characterized by a scorching temperature of 109 degrees Fahrenheit and a gentle headwind of 2 knots from a direction of 269 degrees.
As the aircraft entered the left-hand pattern, it quickly completed the turn, covering a distance of less than 1 nautical mile in just 92 seconds. The subsequent crosswind turn was equally swift, taking only 11 seconds to complete. The Spitfire then began its downwind turn, covering a distance of 5 nautical miles at an angle of 51.1 degrees to the runway. The downwind leg itself was 3 nautical miles long and took 62 seconds to complete.
The base leg turn was another 3 nautical miles long, with the aircraft turning at an angle of 79.6 degrees to the runway. The base leg itself was also 3 nautical miles long and took 55 seconds to complete. The final turn was a short one, covering less than 1 nautical mile in just 15 seconds. The Spitfire then began its final approach to runway 28, flying at a heading of 260 degrees and an altitude of 500 feet above ground level, just 1 nautical mile from the runway.
The landing itself was a bit rough, with the aircraft touching down at a speed of 84 knots, which was slightly faster than ideal. The touchdown distance was good, however, at 646 feet, and the runway touchdown position was only slightly misaligned from the centerline by 18 feet. The local weather conditions at the time of landing were much cooler, with a temperature of 67 degrees Fahrenheit and a tailwind of 5 knots from a direction of 134 degrees.
The total landing distance was 1,936 feet, which was 73% of the runway length. The runway rollout alignment was very good, indicating that the pilot had done an excellent job of controlling the aircraft during the landing. The total flight distance was 11 nautical miles, and the flight used a total of -1 pound of fuel.
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