Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Hold the nose down until the speed reaches 100 kt, then rotate.
What happened: You started the rotation at 77 kt, 23 kt before the 100 kt rotation speed.
Watch for: Airspeed indicator: 100 kt at rotation
See Departure Roll
Arrival
Hold the approach aim point and let the aircraft settle onto 457 m instead of holding it off in the flare.
What happened: Touchdown point came 235 m past the target, landing at 692 m against the 457 m aim point, with threshold speed and the flare both within limits.
Watch for: Touchdown distance marker: 457 m from the threshold.
Ground effect becomes significant below about one wingspan of height. A Cessna 172, with a 36 ft span, enters ground effect at flare height - the float it feels in the hold-off is ground effect arriving on cue. An A320, with a span around 117 ft, has been in ground effect since before the threshold and there is no sudden cushion to feel, only a gradual reduction in induced drag that lengthens any float you allow.
Read more in Flare TimingStart to finish · 16 stages, 13 in the score
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Rotated at 77 kt, 23 kt below the 100 kt target, and lifted off at 84 kt 2.3 s later, the nose coming up at 1.6° 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 740 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,692 m of runway left; then climbing at 1,330 fpm on average to 740 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 123 m in, drifted right of the centreline, 3 m at the widest, and lifted off 3 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.
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, 1.3 nm out at 130 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.
Off heading: 8° 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 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 2.0 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 180 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.
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 516 m left of the centreline at 2.0 nm, then inside the band from 1.5 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 45 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 27 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between −1 kt and +10 kt on the approach speed of 90 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 held the target profile well. The aircraft floated down the runway before touching. Touchdown was 692 m past the threshold. Threshold speed was not the cause here - hold the aim point on the approach and let the aircraft settle rather than holding it off, and the touchdown comes back to the numbers.
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 4° right of the track, wings level.
Wind 270° 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 69 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 13 s, an average deceleration of 0.17 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 43 ft, close to the 50 ft target; began the flare at 26 ft. Touched down 692 m in, 387 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 340 fpm at the flare to 180 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 4.9° 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 5.7 m left of the centreline, and steered back to 0.5 m right by the end of 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 692 m past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
Departing from Groningen Airport Eelde, the Cessna 414A began its takeoff roll on runway 23, accelerating to a liftoff speed of 85 kt in a distance of 585 meters, which accounted for 23% of the available runway length. The local weather conditions were favorable, with a temperature of 16 °C and a negligible wind of 1 kt from 269°, resulting in a negligible crosswind and headwind component.
As the aircraft entered the left-hand traffic pattern, it demonstrated a swift and efficient turn, completing the pattern entry in less than 1 nm in 19 seconds. The subsequent downwind turn was executed at an angle of 85.3° to the runway, followed by a downwind leg of 3 nm in 82 seconds. The base leg turn was then completed at an angle of 13.2° to the runway, setting the aircraft up for a final approach from the north-east. The aircraft maintained a heading of 230.0° at 1 nm and 382 ft above ground level, before touching down on runway 23 at a speed of 69 kt, with a smooth touchdown rate of -117 fpm.
The landing was executed with good threshold height and a threshold speed well above the target of 94 kt. However, the touchdown point was slightly misaligned from the centerline by 5.9 meters. The total landing distance of 1,047 meters accounted for 42% of the available runway length, with a good runway rollout alignment. The aircraft's performance was further highlighted by its efficient fuel usage, with a total flight distance of 10 nm covered in 6 minutes, using 0 kg of fuel.
Scroll or drag the slider to zoom · double-click to reset · hover for values