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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Ease back pressure in smoothly as you approach 70 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
Arrival
Begin raising the nose earlier, by 11 ft, so the flare has time to arrest the sink before touchdown.
What happened: The flare began late at 5.8 ft, 5.5 ft below the normal band, and a late flare like this usually leaves too little time to arrest the sink before touchdown.
Watch for: Watch radio altitude and start the flare in the normal band, around 11 ft.
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 · 18 stages, 15 in the score
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From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Rotated at 65 kt, 5 kt below the 70 kt target, and lifted off at 78 kt 2.9 s later, the nose coming up at 0.8° a second.
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 takeoff, point by point
Side view from the start of the roll to 381 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 5,185 ft of runway left; then climbing at 770 fpm on average to 381 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 7,980 ft runway.
Rolled from 260 ft in, drifted right of the centreline, 18 ft at the widest, and lifted off 14 ft right. Airborne 19 % 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, 1.2 nm out at 116 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.
High on downwind: 1,618 ft against 1,000 ft, 618 ft above.
Downwind. Parallel to the runway, opposite the landing direction, at pattern altitude and roughly 90 kt. The single most important moment of the entire circuit is the point abeam your intended touchdown point. Power back (around 1,700 RPM in a 172 works as a starting value to calibrate), first stage of flap, pre-landing flow, and re-trim. Everything from abeam to touchdown is one continuous energy problem. Arrive at the abeam point high or fast and you'll pay for it ninety seconds later in the flare, which is why analysing only the touchdown so often misdiagnoses the fault.
Read more in Pattern WorkGood: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
Good: full marks on the turn.
The final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 2.3 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 340 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 1,600 ft left of the centreline at 2.3 nm, then inside the band from 1.8 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 39 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 23 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 2.3 nm, where the final began, to 0.6 nm (up to +48 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
The flare wandered off the target profile. The flare began at 6 ft agl above the runway, lower than this aircraft wants. Touchdown was 2,052 ft past the threshold. Begin raising the nose earlier - a late flare leaves no time to arrest the sink.
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 270° at 5 kt · 5 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 67 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 11 s, an average deceleration of 0.20 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 51 ft, close to the 50 ft target; began the flare late, at 6 ft; ballooned 3 ft from 1 ft. Touched down 2,052 ft in, 1,052 ft past 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.
From the flare the descent stopped and turned into a climb of 130 fpm before coming down at 170 fpm to touch. The nose came up 1.1° 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 7,980 ft runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline, and stayed within 1 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.
Touched down 2,052 ft past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The Piper PA-28 Arrow III taxied from the parking area to runway 25 at KEGE Eagle County Regional Airport in 2 minutes, covering less than 1 nm.
Takeoff was performed on runway 25. The aircraft used 1,778 ft of runway, which is 22 % of the available length. Rotation occurred at 65 kt. Local weather was temperature 46 °F with wind 5 kt from 270°, giving a 1 kt crosswind and a 5 kt headwind.
Initial climb to 400 ft agl took 27 seconds, averaging 575 fpm and reaching 96 kt at the top of the climb.
The left-hand circuit lasted 4 minutes. The downwind leg was 3 nm long, flown in 89 seconds at 1,690 ft agl. The base leg was less than 1 nm and took 11 seconds.
Final approach to runway 25 began at 1,126 ft agl and descended to 130 ft agl in 71 seconds. At 500 ft above the runway all stabilisation checks were met: gear down, landing flap, sink rate, glideslope, centreline, speed, and wings level. The aircraft was in flap position 3 at 348 ft agl and was flying 104 kt.
Landing on runway 25 occurred with a good threshold height. Threshold speed was slightly above target at 80 kt. The flare was good but started late. Touchdown was 617 ft beyond the touchdown zone, at 65 kt and a rate of -174 fpm. Alignment on touchdown and during rollout was perfect, with no bounce. Total landing distance was 2,868 ft, 36 % of the runway, and rollout alignment remained perfect.
After landing, the aircraft taxied to the parking area in 6 minutes, covering less than 1 nm.
The entire flight covered 12 nm in 10 minutes and used 9 lbs of fuel.
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