Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Hold the nose down until the speed reaches 142 kt, then rotate.
What happened: You started the rotation at 125 kt, 17 kt before the 142 kt rotation speed.
Watch for: Airspeed indicator: 142 kt at rotation
See Departure Roll
Arrival
Hold the back pressure smoothly through the moment of touchdown and let the mainwheels settle without relaxing or adding a second pitch input.
What happened: The approach and flare both stayed within limits, yet the aircraft bounced at touchdown.
Watch for: Vertical speed indicator: a steady, continuous sink through to touchdown with no second pitch input.
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 WorkStart to finish · 16 stages, 13 in the score
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Taxi out
The roll
Rotated early, and slowly
The nose came up at 125 kt, 17 kt before the 142 kt rotate speed, and rose at 0.8° a second, slower than the 2 to 3 airliners use.
The nose started up before the rotate speed and then came up slowly, as if easing it off early. Wait for the rotate speed, then make one steady pull at the normal rate for this aircraft.
Liftoff and climb
Plan view the roll down the 3,671 m runway.
Rolled from 51 m in, drifted right of the centreline, 8.2 m at the widest, and lifted off 4.2 m right, in 11 kn of crosswind from the right. Airborne 32 % 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.
Side view from the start of the roll to 1,049 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 2,170 m of runway left; then climbing at 2,590 fpm on average to 1,049 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 dark stretch of the roll is the run with the nose up and the wheels still on, with its length and time under the runway.
Speed and pitch from brake release to the end of the climb, against time.
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 grey band is the run between the nose coming up and the wheels leaving the runway. The figures at liftoff are the pitch then and how fast the nose came up, in degrees a second. The rotation detail below draws the rotation against the rates for this aircraft and its tail-strike pitch, where the slope reads properly. The grey dashed line across the pitch is the attitude held from 35 ft to the end: a nose held steady is a climb speed that holds, and the airspeed trace sits directly above it to compare.
Rotation detail the pitch over the seconds from rotation to 35 ft, where the slope reads properly.
The pitch over the seconds from the nose starting to come up to 35 ft, stretched so the slope reads properly. The green dot is where the nose started up, the grey band runs to the wheels leaving, and the figures at liftoff are the pitch then and how fast the nose came up. The two dashed green lines rising from the rotation point are 2 to 3° a second, the rates airliners are rotated at: a trace steeper than both is a faster rotation, one shallower than both a slower one. The red dashed line is 12.1°, the pitch at which this aircraft's tail touches the runway with the wheels still on it, drawn from rotation to liftoff only: once the wheels leave, every foot climbed adds tail clearance.
Left-hand, 1,500 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, 1.5 nm out at 154 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, 1,500 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.
Good: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
Off heading: 9° 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 WorkGood: full marks on the turn.
The final from 4 nm.
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 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, 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 267 m left of the centreline, then inside the band from 3.6 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 34 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 20 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between +0 kt and +14 kt on the approach speed of 136 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
Perfect landing flare
Touchdown
Rollout
Side view — the last 1,524 m of the approach.
Began the flare at 44 ft, 151 m before the threshold; crossed the threshold at 24 ft, 26 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 303 m in, close to 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 1,524 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 670 fpm at the flare to 190 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 4.9° on the way down. Into the flare at 137 kt, on the 135 kt approach speed, and 130 kt at touchdown.
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 1,524 m of the 3,671 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 2 m left of the centreline and drifted to 11 m left on the rollout, back to 1.5 m left by the end. 10 kt across from the right, which takes about 4° of crab to hold the centreline at 130 kt. Touched down straight - the crab taken out before the wheels touched, 2.1° of bank.
Wind 300° at 13 kt · 9 kt head · 10 kt across
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 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. The sentence gives the nose against the direction you were actually moving as the wheels touched, and the steepest bank as they touched, the figure the touchdown's Bank tile marks. The rest of it is shown for reading, not marked.
The 303 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The 1.19 G arrival bounced.
The rest of the report
The Boeing 747-8 taxied from the parking area to runway 23L in less than 1 minute, covering less than 1 nm before commencing the departure roll.
During the take-off roll on runway 23L at NZAA Auckland International Airport, the aircraft accelerated to a liftoff speed of 153 kt. The take-off distance recorded was 1,171 m, representing 32 % of the available runway. Ambient conditions were 17 °C with a wind of 16 kt from 299°, providing a 12 kt cross-wind component and an 11 kt head-wind component.
The climb began overhead the airport, with the airplane climbing from 995 ft asl to 1,571 ft asl, an altitude gain of 577 ft achieved in 1 minute while covering 2 nm.
Level cruise commenced approximately 2 mi southwest of the airport and was maintained for 4 minutes, during which the aircraft travelled 12 nm.
For the final approach to runway 23L, the aircraft was positioned 3 nm east of the threshold at an altitude of 1,284 ft agl, tracking a heading of 254.0°.
Landing was executed on runway 23L, whose length is 3,671 m. The threshold speed was 136 kt, and touchdown occurred at 306 m down the runway with a speed of 130 kt. The vertical speed at touchdown was minus 266 fpm, and the alignment was reported as perfect. Weather at the time was 15 °C with a wind of 13 kt from 273°, yielding a 5 kt cross-wind and a 12 kt head-wind. The total landing distance measured 961 m, equivalent to 26 % of the runway.
Rollout continued after touchdown, with the aircraft traveling a total of 961 m before deceleration was complete. The final runway centreline deviation was measured at 10.6 m to the side.
In summary, the flight covered a total distance of 19 nm, taking 8, and consumed 72,012 kg of fuel.
Scroll or drag the slider to zoom · double-click to reset · hover for values