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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Improve the pattern downwind leg
The 45-degrees-behind-the-wing cue assumes you can turn your head and use peripheral vision. Downwind spacing cues like "put the wingtip halfway up the strut" assume a fixed, known eyepoint. Neither survives a monitor unmodified. If you fly on a fixed monitor, stop pretending and fly a numbers-based circuit.
Read more in Pattern WorkStart to finish · 15 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 98 kt with 4.4° 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 262 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,749 m of runway left; then climbing at 730 fpm on average to 262 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 2,737 m runway.
Rolled from 34 m in, drifted right of the centreline, 1.9 m at the widest, and lifted off 1.9 m right. Airborne 22 % 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.
One stabilised approach gate for a circuit: seven checks where the approach path is 500 ft above the runway. The 1,000 ft gate is an instrument-approach check and does not apply.
When the approach was stable
Every check met from 2.0 nm, about 710 ft above the runway, to the threshold, before the 500 ft gate.
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 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 3.1 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 140 ft below 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 3× larger than distances along the final.
Inside the 1° band from 3.1 nm, where the final began, to 2.7 nm, then drifted 121 m right between 2.7 and 2.0 nm, then inside the band from 2.0 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 47 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 28 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 3.1 nm, where the final began, to 2.2 nm (up to +56 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
Great landing flare
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 270° at 1 kt · 1 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 82 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 14 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 1,524 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 30 ft, 20 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 522 m in, 217 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 1,524 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 510 fpm at 29 ft to 70 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 4.8° 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 1,524 m of the 2,737 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 1.6 m left of the centreline, and stayed within 2.6 m 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 522 m past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
This flight was conducted in a Baron 58P aircraft, departing from runway 30 at EGPK Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Taxiing from the parking area to the runway took less than a minute and covered a distance of less than 1 nautical mile. The departure roll began on runway 30, and the takeoff distance was 602 meters, which accounted for 22% of the runway length. The aircraft lifted off at a speed of 98 knots.
The local weather conditions at the time of departure were characterized by a temperature of 16 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 1 knot from a direction of 269 degrees. This resulted in a negligible crosswind and headwind component. The aircraft then entered a left-hand pattern from runway 30, covering a distance of less than 1 nautical mile in 111 seconds.
As the aircraft continued its pattern, it encountered a left-hand crosswind from runway 30, which it navigated in 15 seconds. The downwind turn was executed at an angle of 45 degrees to the runway, with a distance of 3 nautical miles. The downwind leg itself was short, covering a distance of less than 1 nautical mile in just 2 seconds.
The final approach to runway 12 was made from the north-west, with the aircraft flying at a heading of 117.0 degrees and an altitude of 764 feet above ground level (agl). The landing was executed with a threshold speed that was slightly above the target speed of 97 knots.
The touchdown point was 90 meters beyond the touchdown zone, but the touchdown speed of 76 knots was considered good, and the touchdown rate of -30 feet per minute was perfect. The runway touchdown alignment was also very good. The local weather conditions at the time of landing were similar to those at departure, with a temperature of 16 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 1 knot from a direction of 270 degrees.
This resulted in a negligible crosswind and a tailwind component of 1 knot. The total landing distance was 912 meters, which accounted for 33% of the runway length. The runway rollout alignment was perfect, indicating a smooth and controlled descent. The total flight distance was 7 nautical miles, and the flight duration was 6 minutes, with no fuel being consumed during the flight.
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