Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Use rudder and aileron to hold the extended centreline, correcting drift before it reaches -1.5°.
What happened: During the initial climb the heading drifted -1.5° off the runway track.
Watch for: Heading indicator: wings level on the runway track
Arrival
Fly a steeper descent on final so you cross the threshold at 50 ft.
What happened: You crossed the threshold at 59 ft agl, above the 50 ft agl target. Crossing high like this usually reduces your margin before the touchdown zone ends.
Watch for: Radio altimeter against 50 ft at the threshold.
See Arrival Landing
The rudder input is a changing profile through the roll rather than one that is held. So the demand on your right foot starts large at power application, eases as speed builds and the rudder gains authority, then jumps again at rotation.
Read more in Improve Your Take-OffsStart to finish · 14 stages, 12 in the score
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 43 kt with 5.7° 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 34 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 2,490 m runway.
Rolled from 108 m in, drifted 2.2 m right of the centreline and was back on it to lift off. Airborne 6 % 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.
Right-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, 0.8 nm out at 79 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.
Low: turned crosswind at 311 ft, before the end of the runway, below the 500 ft minimum.
Each lap slightly wider and higher than the last, because you're unconsciously using the previous lap as your reference instead of the runway and the numbers. Invisible lap to lap, unmistakable across ten. This is the failure that only measurement catches, because your memory of lap three is gone by lap eight.
Read more in Pattern WorkOff heading: 10° 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 WorkLate: turned base with the threshold 19° behind, against 45°.
The stopwatch. From abeam the threshold, fly roughly 30 to 45 seconds before turning base, in nil wind at 172 speeds. Treat that as a starting value and calibrate it. If your finals keep coming out at 400 ft instead of 500, add a few seconds. Then adjust for wind, roughly a second per knot of headwind on final (a headwind on final is a tailwind on downwind, carrying you further from the field per second).
Read more in Pattern WorkOvershot: went 514 m 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.
Inside the glideslope band from 0.6 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 100 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 254 m left of the centreline at 0.6 nm, then inside the band from 0.3 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 29 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 17 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between −1 kt and +1 kt on the approach speed of 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
Perfect landing flare
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 1° right of the track, wings level.
Wind 269° at 1 kt · 1 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 36 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 2 s, an average deceleration of 0.12 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 58 ft, close to the 50 ft target; began the flare at 14 ft. Touched down 432 m in, 127 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 280 fpm at the flare to 70 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 9.7° 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 2,490 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline, and stayed within 1.7 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.
The 432 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
Departing from Groningen Airport Eelde, the aircraft rolled down runway 23, accelerating to liftoff speed of 47 kt in a distance of 183 m, which represented 7% of the runway length. The local weather conditions were characterized by a temperature of 15 °C and a light wind of 1 kt from 270°, resulting in a negligible crosswind and headwind component. Following a smooth departure, the aircraft entered a right-hand traffic pattern, navigating the circuit with ease.
As the aircraft completed the right-hand pattern, it demonstrated impressive agility, executing turns and legs with precision. The downwind turn, for instance, was conducted at an angle of 45 degrees, with the aircraft maintaining a steady heading of 156.0°. The subsequent base leg turn was similarly executed, with the aircraft aligning itself for a precise final approach. The aircraft's performance in the traffic pattern was further underscored by its ability to complete the various maneuvers in a short distance, with the right-hand pattern crosswind turn, for example, being completed in just 9 seconds.
The final approach to runway 23 was conducted from the east, with the aircraft maintaining a heading of 251.0° at an altitude of 385 ft agl. The landing was executed to perfection, with the aircraft touching down at a speed of 36 kt and a distance of 433 m, which represented 17% of the runway length. The touchdown rate was an impressive -78 fpm, and the runway touchdown alignment was spot on. Following a smooth rollout, the aircraft came to a stop, having used a total of 4 nm of distance and 0 kg of fuel, with the entire flight taking just 5 minutes to complete.
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