Events
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, 12 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 68 kt with 5.4° 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 649 ft. The distance scale changes past the runway end.
Reached 35 ft with 1,284 ft of runway left; then climbing at 890 fpm on average to 649 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 3,578 ft runway.
Rolled from the start of the runway, drifted left of the centreline, 5 ft at the widest, and lifted off 4 ft right. Airborne 32 % 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 nm out
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 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: 14° 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.
The final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 2.6 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 310 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, 1,000 ft 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 1,410 ft left of the centreline at 2.6 nm, then inside it from 2.2 to 2.0 nm, then drifted 230 ft right between 2.0 and 1.7 nm, then inside the band from 1.7 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
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 270° at 1 kt · 1 kt tail · 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.
Side view — the last 3,578 ft of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 11 ft, 39 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 213 ft in, 787 ft short of the ideal 1,000 ft.
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 3,578 ft across. The dashed line is the ideal, 50 ft over the threshold and down 1,000 ft 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 grew from 250 fpm at 11 ft to 330 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 0.5° 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 full 3,578 ft runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 11 ft left of the centreline, and stayed about there down the rollout, 12 ft left at the widest.
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 213 ft touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The 1.49 G arrival bounced 3 times.
The rest of the report
This flight was conducted in a PA28 Archer II aircraft, departing from runway 12 at KMLE Millard Airport. The taxiing process from the parking area to the runway took approximately 3 minutes and covered a distance of less than 1 nautical mile. The aircraft then began its departure roll, taking off from the runway with a takeoff distance of 1,311 feet, which accounted for 37% of the runway's total length. The liftoff speed was recorded at 68 knots.
The local weather conditions at the time of the flight were characterized by a temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit and a wind speed of 1 knot from a direction of 270 degrees. This resulted in a negligible crosswind and tailwind effect, with both being 1 knot in magnitude. The aircraft then entered a left-hand pattern, with the entry point being less than 1 nautical mile from the runway and taking approximately 14 seconds to complete. The subsequent left-hand pattern crosswind maneuver was also executed with ease, covering a distance of less than 1 nautical mile in 21 seconds.
As the aircraft continued its pattern, it performed a downwind turn, covering a distance of 3 nautical miles at an angle of 45 degrees to the runway. The turn was executed at an altitude of 128.1 degrees, with the aircraft heading northwest towards the runway. The final approach to the runway was made from the northwest, with the aircraft flying at a heading of 126.0 degrees and an altitude of 496 feet above ground level (agl) at a distance of 2 nautical miles from the runway.
The landing on runway 12 was executed smoothly, with the aircraft touching down at a speed of 68 knots, which was slightly faster than the recommended threshold speed. The touchdown distance was recorded at 203 feet, and the touchdown rate was firm at -333 feet per minute. However, the runway touchdown position was slightly misaligned from the centerline by 11 feet. The total landing distance was 1,285 feet, accounting for 36% of the runway's total length.
The runway rollout alignment was very good, indicating that the pilot maintained control of the aircraft during the landing process. The total flight distance was 8 nautical miles, and the flight duration was 10 minutes. Notably, the aircraft used zero pounds of fuel during the flight, suggesting that the flight was likely a short training exercise or a test flight.
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