Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Improve the pattern base leg
See Pattern Base Leg
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 · 14 stages, 13 in the score
Events
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 71 kt with 1.2° 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 785 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,184 m of runway left; then climbing at 1,460 fpm on average to 785 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 1,814 m runway.
Rolled from 242 m in, never more than 0.7 m off the centreline. Airborne 19 % 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.
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, 0.9 nm out at 93 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.
Off heading: 9° from the leg's heading on average.
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: 9° 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 36° 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 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 0.9 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 40 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.
Inside the 1° band all the way from 0.9 nm, never more than 115 m off the centreline.
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 32 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 18 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between −3 kt and +10 kt on the approach speed of 50 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
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 3° right of the track, wings level.
Wind 270° at 2 kt · 2 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.
Side view — the last 1,524 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 12 ft, 38 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 144 m in, 160 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 went from 250 fpm at 10 ft to 40 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 5.0° 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 1,814 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline.
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 144 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a departure roll from runway 23 at EGPE Inverness Airport. The aircraft, a Sting S4, required a takeoff distance of 171 meters, which accounted for 9% of the runway. The liftoff speed was achieved at 71 knots. At the time of departure, the local weather conditions were characterized by a temperature of 16 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 2 knots from a direction of 269 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 1 knot and a headwind of 2 knots.
As the aircraft entered the left-hand pattern from runway 23, it demonstrated impressive agility, completing the maneuver in less than 1 nautical mile in just 18 seconds. The subsequent left-hand pattern crosswind turn was even quicker, taking 17 seconds to complete. The pattern downwind turn involved a distance of 1 nautical mile, with an angle to the runway of 87.0 degrees. The downwind leg itself covered a distance of 2 nautical miles in 59 seconds.
The pattern base leg turn required a distance of 1 nautical mile, with an angle to the runway of 35.6 degrees. The base leg itself was completed in less than 1 nautical mile in 37 seconds. The final turn was the shortest, taking just 8 seconds to complete. The aircraft then began its final approach to runway 23 from the north-east, heading 229.0 degrees at an altitude of 1 nautical mile and 234 feet above ground level.
The landing on runway 23 was successful, with a touchdown distance of 142 meters. Although the touchdown speed of 37 knots was slightly above the target, the touchdown rate of -41 feet per minute was perfect. The runway touchdown alignment was also spot on. The local weather conditions at the time of landing were identical to those at departure, with a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 2 knots from a direction of 269 degrees.
The flight itself was relatively short, covering a total distance of 5 nautical miles in just 4 minutes. Notably, the aircraft used zero kilograms of fuel during the flight. Overall, the flight demonstrated impressive performance and control, with the pilot executing a series of complex maneuvers with ease and precision.
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