Events
Events
Events
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 · 14 stages, 13 in the score
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 62 kt with 2.8° 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 447 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,200 m of runway left; then climbing at 630 fpm on average to 447 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 45 m in, drifted 2.2 m right of the centreline and was back on it to lift off. Airborne 21 % 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.
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, 0.9 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: 7° 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 WorkLost marks: scored 70.
Good: 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 0.8 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 130 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.
Inside the 1° band all the way from 0.8 nm, never more than 205 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.
Over the threshold
Touchdown
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 170° 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.
Side view — the last 1,524 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 24 ft, 26 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 594 m in, 289 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.
From 23 ft the descent stopped and turned into a climb of 140 fpm before coming down at 30 fpm to touch. The nose came up 9.1° 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 2.6 m left of 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.
Touched down 594 m past the threshold — beyond 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 PA38 Tomahawk aircraft accelerated down the runway, covering a distance of 362 meters, which was 20% of the runway's length. The liftoff speed was achieved at 62 knots, marking the start of the flight.
As the aircraft took to the skies, it encountered local weather conditions with a temperature of 23 degrees Celsius and a gentle wind blowing at 2 knots from a direction of 170 degrees. The crosswind component was minimal, at 1 knot, while the headwind component was also 1 knot. This favorable wind condition allowed the aircraft to maintain a stable flight path.
The pilot then entered a right-hand pattern, navigating the aircraft around the airport. The entry into the pattern was swift, with the aircraft covering less than 1 nautical mile in just 15 seconds. As the aircraft continued around the pattern, it encountered a crosswind from the same direction as the runway, but the pilot skillfully managed the aircraft, covering the distance in less than 1 nautical mile in 23 seconds.
The pattern consisted of a series of turns and legs, each carefully executed by the pilot. The downwind turn was made at an angle of 76.3 degrees to the runway, while the downwind leg itself covered a distance of 2 nautical miles in 62 seconds. The base leg turn was made at an angle of 51.0 degrees, and the base leg itself was short, covering less than 1 nautical mile in 17 seconds.
As the aircraft approached the final turn, the pilot expertly guided it around the pattern, covering the distance in less than 1 nautical mile in 32 seconds. The final approach was made from the north-east, heading 230.0 degrees, at an altitude of 44.1 meters above ground level.
The landing was smooth and controlled, with the aircraft touching down on runway 23 at EGPE Inverness Airport. The touchdown point was 151 meters beyond the touchdown zone, but the touchdown speed of 40 knots was well within the target range. The touchdown rate was also perfect, at -0.2 meters per second, and the runway touchdown alignment was very good.
The flight was a success, with the aircraft covering a total distance of 6 nautical miles in just 4 minutes. The fuel consumption was also minimal, with the aircraft using -42 kilograms of fuel. Overall, the flight was a testament to the pilot's skill and the aircraft's performance in the challenging local weather conditions.
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