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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Know your rotation speed
See Departure Roll
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 · 23 stages, 21 in the score
Events
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Events
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From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 82 kt with 0.7° 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 shaded stretch is Climb 3, the part of the climb scored on holding the climb speed.
The takeoff, point by point
Side view from the start of the roll to the end of Climb 3 at 636 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,611 m of runway left; then climbing at 560 fpm on average to 636 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 shaded stretch is Climb 3, scored on its average speed against the target.
Plan view the roll down the 2,936 m runway.
Rolled from 480 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 9.9 m at the widest, and lifted off 9.2 m left. Airborne 36 % 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 final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 2.9 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 250 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 927 m left of the centreline at 2.9 nm, then inside it from 2.1 to 0.7 nm, then 29 m left of it from 0.7 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.
Over the threshold
Touchdown
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 5° right of the track, wings level.
Wind 270° at 2 kt · 1 kt head · 1 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 62 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 46 s, an average deceleration of 0.04 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 26 ft, 24 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 233 m in, 72 m short of 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 stayed between 160 fpm and 280 fpm from 25 ft to the runway. The pitch barely changed.
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 2,498 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline and drifted to 5.7 m left on 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 arrow beside the runway is the crosswind, pointing the way the air was moving, so it pushed the aircraft that way.
The 233 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The 1.17 G arrival bounced.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a taxiing period from the parking to the runway, which took 7 minutes and covered a distance of 2 nautical miles. The aircraft, a Pilatus PC-6, then departed from runway 27 at LDPL Pula Airport, with a takeoff distance of 599 meters, which accounted for 20% of the runway. The liftoff speed was 82 knots.
As the aircraft took off, it encountered local weather conditions of 16°C temperature and a wind speed of 2 knots at 269 degrees. The crosswind was negligible, while the headwind was 2 knots. The enroute climb started 1 mile southwest of Loborika, Istria, Croatia, where the aircraft climbed from 891 feet above sea level to 2,904 feet, an increase of 2,013 feet in 4 minutes, covering a distance of 2 nautical miles.
The enroute level cruise then began overhead LDPM Medulin Campanoz Airfield Medulin, Istria, Croatia, and lasted for 2 minutes, covering a distance of 2 nautical miles. The aircraft then started another enroute climb 1 mile northeast of LDPM Medulin Campanoz Airfield Medulin, climbing from 3,386 feet to 4,091 feet, an increase of 705 feet in 2 minutes, covering a distance of 4 nautical miles.
The enroute level cruise continued 2 miles southeast of Marcana, Istria, Croatia, lasting for 2 minutes and covering a distance of 5 nautical miles. The aircraft then started another enroute climb 3 miles east of Krnica, Istria, Croatia, climbing from 4,640 feet to 6,828 feet, an increase of 2,189 feet in 4 minutes, covering a distance of 11 nautical miles.
As the aircraft continued its journey, it started an enroute descent 5 miles northeast of Rabac, Istria, Croatia, descending from 6,792 feet to 2,650 feet, a decrease of 4,142 feet in 4 minutes, covering a distance of 9 nautical miles. The enroute level cruise then began 2 miles southwest of Malinska, Primorsko-Goranska Zupanija, Croatia, lasting for 2 minutes and covering a distance of 4 nautical miles.
The aircraft then started an enroute descent 1 mile east of Sveti Vid-Miholjice, Primorsko-Goranska Zupanija, Croatia, descending from 1,932 feet to 781 feet, a decrease of 1,151 feet in 2 minutes, covering a distance of 2 nautical miles. The enroute climb then started 2 miles east of Njivice, Primorsko-Goranska Zupanija, Croatia, climbing from 781 feet to 1,382 feet, an increase of 601 feet in 2 minutes, covering a distance of less than 1 nautical mile.
The enroute level cruise then continued 2 miles east of Njivice, lasting for 2 minutes and covering a distance of 2 nautical miles. The final approach to runway 32 at LDRI Rijeka Airport began from the southeast, heading 324.0 degrees at 2 nautical miles and 661 feet above ground level.
The landing on runway 32 at LDRI Rijeka Airport was successful, with a touchdown distance of 232 meters and a touchdown speed of 52 knots. The touchdown rate was fair at -219 feet per minute, and the runway touchdown alignment was perfect. The local weather conditions were 15°C temperature and a wind speed of 2 knots at 270 degrees, with a crosswind of 2 knots and a headwind of 1 knot.
The total landing distance was
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