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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Use rudder to hold the heading within 1.6° in the first climb, correcting drift as soon as it starts.
What happened: The climb drifted 1.6° off heading, and a wider bank excursion to 9.9° average followed soon after; a heading drift in the first climb usually carries into a larger bank excursion in the second.
Watch for: Heading indicator: wings level and steady heading through the climb
Arrival
Use aileron to level the wings through the flare, holding wings level all the way to touchdown rather than letting bank build in close to the ground.
What happened: This flight carried 2.6° of bank angle through the landing flare, and the touchdown landed 14 m away from the centreline. A bank held into the touchdown like this usually carries on into the rollout, with the alignment drifting away from the runway centreline as the rollout continues.
Watch for: Attitude indicator: wings level through the flare and touchdown.
A typical trainer rotates in the mid-50s of knots - a 172 at around 55 KIAS, climbing out at a Vy in the low 70s, though check your own POH rather than memorising Cessna's numbers - and the transferable rule is that Vr sits just above the stall speed in takeoff configuration. Rotate early because "it felt ready" and the aircraft lifts off inside ground effect, where induced drag is reduced, then climbs out of it into more drag. On a marginal-performance day the result is an aircraft that lifts off and then refuses to climb, sagging back towards the runway.
Read more in Improve Your Take-OffsStart to finish · 11 stages, 9 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 57 kt with 10.7° 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 40 ft.
Reached 35 ft 249 m past the runway end.
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 603 m runway.
Rolled from 30 m in, drifted 2.7 m left of the centreline and was back on it to lift off. Airborne 42 % 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.
The final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
High from 0.6 nm, where the final began, to 0.3 nm (up to 330 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.
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 323 m left 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 46 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 28 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 0.6 nm, where the final began, to the threshold (up to +35 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 flare was pumped rather than held: pitch changed direction 4 times on the way down. Touchdown was 481 m past the threshold. One smooth continuous input - chasing the runway with the elevator makes the next correction bigger, not smaller.
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 6° left of the track, wings level.
Wind 189° at 2 kt · 1 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 77 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 17 s, an average deceleration of 0.15 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 1,042 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 46 ft, close to the 50 ft target; began the flare at 41 ft. Touched down 481 m in, 176 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 1,042 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 970 fpm at the flare to 140 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 9.2° 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 1,042 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 14 m right of the centreline, and stayed about there down the rollout, 15 m right at the widest.
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 481 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
Taxiing from the parking area to the runway at EDST Hahnweide Airfield took a considerable 343 minutes, covering a distance of 6 nautical miles. The aircraft, a Baron 58P, eventually departed from runway 25, utilizing 256 meters, or 42% of the available runway length, to achieve liftoff at a speed of 58 knots. The local weather conditions at the time of departure featured a temperature of 12 degrees Celsius, with a gentle wind of 2 knots from 190 degrees, resulting in a negligible crosswind and headwind component.
As the aircraft entered the left-hand traffic pattern from runway 25, it demonstrated impressive agility, completing the maneuver in less than 1 nautical mile in just 62 seconds. Subsequent pattern turns, including a left-hand crosswind turn, showcased the aircraft's responsiveness, with the latter completed in a mere 17 seconds. The final approach to runway 30, which was initiated from the southeast at a heading of 309.0 degrees, featured a good threshold height and a slightly elevated threshold speed of 99 knots. The touchdown point was located 49 meters beyond the designated touchdown zone, with a touchdown speed of 70 knots and an excellent touchdown rate of -93 feet per minute.
The landing distance of 768 meters, which accounted for 74% of the available runway length, was a respectable figure, considering the aircraft's touchdown point was significantly misaligned by 15.7 meters from the centerline. The runway rollout alignment was also found to be misaligned by 15.9 meters from the centerline. The total flight distance of 10 nautical miles was completed in 12 minutes, with the aircraft consuming 17 kilograms of fuel.
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