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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Improve the pattern base leg turn
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 · 12 stages, 11 in the score
Events
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Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 78 kt with 10.0° 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 210 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 2,102 ft of runway left.
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 5,015 ft runway.
Rolled from 2,234 ft in, never more than 2 ft off the centreline. Airborne 47 % 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, 2 nm out at 202 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.
Rough: the G force varied more than a smooth turn and leg would.
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: 19° 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 WorkRough: the G force varied more than a smooth turn and leg would.
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 WorkThe final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 1° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 1.4 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 190 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, 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 1,500 ft left of the centreline at 1.4 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 32 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 18 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Fast from 1.4 nm, where the final began, to the threshold (up to +74 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 1° right of the track, 3° of bank.
Wind 226° at 9 kt · 9 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 56 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 12 s, an average deceleration of 0.12 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 5,000 ft of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 30 ft, 20 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 1,098 ft in, close to 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 5,000 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 went from 300 fpm at 28 ft to 110 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 6.5° 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 first 5,000 ft of the 5,015 ft runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 5 ft left of the centreline, and stayed within 5 ft 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 arrow beside the runway is the crosswind, pointing the way the air was moving, so it pushed the aircraft that way.
The 1,098 ft touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The Horten Ho229 aircraft departed from runway 24 at the Cape Cod Gateway Airport, KHYA, with a takeoff distance of 212 feet, which accounted for 4% of the runway. The aircraft lifted off at a speed of 79 knots, and the local weather conditions at the time of takeoff were characterized by a temperature of 71 degrees Fahrenheit and a wind speed of 9 knots from a direction of 226 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 1 knot and a headwind of 9 knots.
As the aircraft entered the left-hand pattern, it did so from runway 24, and the distance covered in this maneuver was less than 1 nautical mile in just 8 seconds. The left-hand pattern crosswind was also executed with ease, taking the aircraft less than 1 nautical mile in 15 seconds. The pattern downwind leg was completed in 27 seconds, covering a distance of 2 nautical miles.
The pattern base leg turn was a critical maneuver, requiring the aircraft to turn at an angle of 45 degrees to the runway, which was achieved with a distance of 1 nautical mile. The final approach to runway 24 was made from the north-east, with the aircraft heading 231.0 degrees at an altitude of 305 feet above ground level and a distance of 1 nautical mile from the runway.
The landing on runway 24 was executed smoothly, with the aircraft touching down at a speed of 63 knots and a touchdown distance of 1,089 feet. The touchdown rate was also smooth, at -108 feet per minute, and the runway touchdown alignment was very good. The local weather conditions remained the same, with a temperature of 71 degrees Fahrenheit and a wind speed of 9 knots from a direction of 226 degrees.
The total landing distance was 1,804 feet, which accounted for 36% of the runway. The runway rollout alignment was perfect, indicating a smooth and controlled descent. The total flight distance was 4 nautical miles, and the flight duration was 2 minutes. The aircraft used a total of -131 pounds of fuel during the flight.
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