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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Ease the nose up sooner to lift off at 70 kt instead of letting speed build on the ground.
What happened: The aircraft lifted off at 96 kt, 26 kt above the target liftoff speed.
Watch for: Airspeed indicator: 70 kt at liftoff
See Departure Roll
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 · 17 stages, 16 in the score
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From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 96 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 takeoff, point by point
Side view from the start of the roll to 548 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 905 m of runway left; then climbing at 1,440 fpm on average to 548 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 the start of the runway, drifted left of the centreline, 2 m at the widest, and lifted off 1.5 m left. Airborne 26 % 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, 1.6 nm out at 162 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 WorkTurn onto downwind: scored 0.
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 WorkOff heading: 22° from the leg's heading on average.
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 WorkOvershot: went 365 m through the centreline turning final.
Overshooting final. A tailwind component on base sweeps you through the extended centreline, the instinctive correction is to steepen the bank and, when that's not enough, to skid the turn with rudder. In a real aircraft this is the base-to-final stall-spin scenario that kills people. The sim under-punishes it, because a spring yoke transmits no lightening of control force, there's no buffet through your hands, and no seat-of-the-pants sensation of the skid. You get the numbers of the skidded turn without the feel of it. The correct response is the same in both worlds and needs practising until it's reflexive. Don't steepen past 30 degrees, and if you've blown through the centreline, go around and reset.
Read more in Pattern WorkOne stabilised approach gate for a circuit: five checks where the approach path is 500 ft above the runway. The 1,000 ft gate is an instrument-approach check and does not apply.
Still turning onto final at the lower gate, so the centreline and wings level are not asked there - the aeroplane was not lined up yet, and was banked because it was turning. The other checks are marked as usual.
When the approach was stable
Every check met from 1.3 to 0.5 nm, then not again: fast from 0.5 nm to the threshold.
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 2.2 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 70 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. 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 365 m right of the centreline at 2.2 nm, then inside the band from 1.3 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 39 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 23 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band from 2.2 nm, where the final began, to 0.5 nm, then fast to the threshold (up to +15 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
Great landing flare
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 1° left of the track, wings level.
Wind 273° 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.
From 63 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 13 s, an average deceleration of 0.15 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 33 ft, 17 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 439 m in, 134 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.
The sink went from 690 fpm at 34 ft to 130 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 6.3° 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, and stayed within 0.8 m of it down 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 439 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a quick taxi from the parking area to the runway, taking less than a minute and covering a distance of less than a nautical mile. The aircraft, a PA28 Arrow III, then departed from runway 05 at EGPE Inverness Airport, with a takeoff distance of 515 meters, which accounted for 28% of the runway. The liftoff speed was 96 knots, and the local weather conditions were characterized by a temperature of 16 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 1 knot from 273 degrees, resulting in a negligible crosswind and tailwind.
As the aircraft entered the left-hand pattern from runway 05, it covered a distance of less than a nautical mile in 31 seconds. The subsequent left-hand pattern crosswind leg was completed in 23 seconds, covering a similar distance. The pattern downwind turn involved a distance of 2 nautical miles, with an angle to the runway of 83.0 degrees. The downwind leg itself took 36 seconds to complete, covering the same distance.
The pattern base leg turn was another 2 nautical miles, with an angle to the runway of 28.1 degrees. The base leg itself was completed in 21 seconds, covering a distance of less than a nautical mile. The final turn was the shortest, taking 12 seconds to complete and covering a distance of less than a nautical mile.
The final approach to runway 05 was made from the southwest, with a heading of 39.0 degrees at an altitude of 503 feet above ground level and a distance of 2 nautical miles from the runway. The landing was successful, with a touchdown distance of 438 meters, which was 41% of the runway length. The touchdown speed was 62 knots, and the touchdown rate was smooth at -144 feet per minute. The runway touchdown alignment was perfect, and the runway rollout alignment was also perfect.
The local weather conditions remained the same, with a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 1 knot from 273 degrees, resulting in a negligible crosswind and tailwind. The total landing distance was 745 meters, and the total flight distance was 10 nautical miles, taking 7 minutes to complete. The flight used 4 kilograms of fuel.
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