Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Maintain the centreline
See Departure Roll
A small uncorrected heading error at 40 knots becomes a metre of offset per second by 100 knots, noticed only at rotation, producing a crabbed liftoff. Root cause is nearly always eyes on the tape instead of the far end of the runway. Small heading changes displace a distant point visibly long before the nearby centreline stripes look wrong.
Read more in Improve Your Take-OffsStart to finish · 9 stages, 8 in the score
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 56 kt with 1.4° 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 86 ft.
Reached 35 ft at the runway end.
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 548 m runway.
Rolled from 61 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 49 m at the widest, and lifted off 39 m left. Airborne 42 % 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.
One stabilised approach gate: seven checks where the approach path is 300 ft above the runway. The 1,000 ft gate was not assessed, because the approach did not join final that far out.
At the 300 ft gate: centreline more than 1° off and speed more than 15 kt above the approach speed of 62 kt.
When the approach was stable
Every check met from 0.5 nm, about 340 ft above the runway, to the threshold, after the 300 ft gate.
Each line is one of the gate checks, run along the whole final rather than only at the gates: green where it would have passed, amber where it would not. The glideslope, centreline and speed lines use the bands in the charts beside this card. The sink rate is allowed what the glideslope needs at your ground speed plus 600 fpm, the wings 10° of bank, and the gear and flap are read from when you moved the levers. The bottom line is green where every check held at once, ignoring blips shorter than 0.2 nm, and the sentence above it says from where it held to the threshold. A ring is a stabilisation gate, where the checks in the table were taken.
The final from 4 nm, with the stabilisation gates on it.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 1.2 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 290 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. A ring is a stabilisation gate: green when every check there passed, amber with the failed checks named beside it.
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 545 m left of the centreline at 1.2 nm, then inside the band from 0.6 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 31 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 19 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 1.2 nm, where the final began, to 0.6 nm (up to +47 kt), then inside the band to the threshold.
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
Excellent landing flare
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 5° left of the track, wings level.
Wind 026° 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 50 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 10 s, an average deceleration of 0.11 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 548 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 15 ft, 35 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 184 m in, 121 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 548 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 160 fpm at 13 ft to 50 fpm at 2 ft, then back up to 150 fpm at touchdown. 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 full 548 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline and drifted to 5.8 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 184 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The VL-3 915 aircraft departed from runway 08 at LSPV Wangen-Lachen Airfield, a small airfield located in Wangen, Kanton Schwyz, Switzerland. The takeoff roll was smooth, covering 60% of the 548-meter runway, and the aircraft lifted off at a speed of 57 knots. The local weather conditions at the time of departure were characterized by a temperature of 9 degrees Celsius and a gentle wind blowing at 3 knots from a direction of 130 degrees, resulting in a crosswind of 3 knots and a headwind of 2 knots.
As the aircraft climbed away from the airfield, it began its enroute climb, reaching an altitude of 2,220 feet above sea level, an increase of 151 feet from the initial altitude of 2,069 feet. This climb was achieved in just 2 minutes, covering a distance of 4 nautical miles. The aircraft then began its final approach to runway 08, heading in a westerly direction at an altitude of 875 feet above ground level.
Upon reaching the final approach phase, the aircraft was at a distance of 0 nautical miles from the runway threshold, with a good threshold height and a threshold speed that was well above the target speed of 57 knots. The touchdown distance was also good, covering 183 meters of the runway, and the touchdown speed was 48 knots, which was slightly faster than desired. However, the touchdown rate was excellent, at -71 feet per minute, and the runway touchdown alignment was perfect.
The local weather conditions at the time of landing were similar to those at departure, with a temperature of 9 degrees Celsius and a gentle wind blowing at 2 knots from a direction of 40 degrees, resulting in a crosswind of 1 knot and a headwind of 2 knots. The total landing distance was 376 meters, covering 69% of the runway, and the runway rollout alignment was very good.
In conclusion, the VL-3 915 aircraft performed a smooth and efficient flight, covering a total distance of 5 nautical miles in just 3 minutes, and using only 1 kilogram of fuel. The aircraft's performance was impressive, with a good takeoff and landing distance, and excellent touchdown rate and runway alignment.
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