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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Make small rudder corrections against a fixed point at the far end of the runway to stay on the centreline during the ground roll.
What happened: You tracked 24 ft right of the runway centreline during the ground roll, and this pattern of drift usually carries forward into a rightward heading deviation during the initial climb, as seen in the -0.8° variation through Climb 1.
Watch for: Heading indicator: hold runway heading through the climb.
Arrival
Apply small rudder corrections at touchdown, aiming at a point at the far end of the runway, to stay on the centreline.
What happened: Touchdown drifted 26 ft off the centreline, and landings like this usually carry that drift into the rollout, where the alignment error grew to 44 ft.
Watch for: Runway centreline: aircraft tracking directly over it through touchdown and rollout.
A typical trainer rotates in the mid-50s of knots - a 172 at around 55 KIAS, climbing out at a Vy in the low 70s, though check your own POH rather than memorising Cessna's numbers - and the transferable rule is that Vr sits just above the stall speed in takeoff configuration. Rotate early because "it felt ready" and the aircraft lifts off inside ground effect, where induced drag is reduced, then climbs out of it into more drag. On a marginal-performance day the result is an aircraft that lifts off and then refuses to climb, sagging back towards the runway.
Read more in Improve Your Take-OffsStart to finish · 15 stages, 13 in the score
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From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Rotated at 52 kt, 4 kt above the 48 kt target, and lifted off at 53 kt 0.4 s later with 3.7° of pitch. Climb 3 held close to its 87 kt target, at 85 kt on average.
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 dashed green line is the speed to rotate at for this aircraft at its weight, and the green dot is where the nose started to come up. The figure at liftoff is the pitch then. The shaded stretch is Climb 3, the part of the climb scored on holding the climb speed.
The takeoff, point by point
Side view from the start of the roll to the end of Climb 3 at 499 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 3,091 ft of runway left; then climbing at 910 fpm on average to 499 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. The shaded stretch is Climb 3, scored on its average speed against the target.
Plan view the roll down the 4,974 ft runway.
Rolled from 403 ft in, drifted left of the centreline, 24 ft at the widest, and lifted off 12 ft right. Airborne 18 % 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.
Over the threshold
Touchdown
Excellent landing flare. It lost 4.0 points, for the nose going up and down 4 times.
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, 3° of bank.
Wind 154° at 3 kt · 2 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 42 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 2 s, an average deceleration of 0.29 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 2,823 ft of the approach.
Began the flare at 21 ft, 142 ft before the threshold; crossed the threshold at 7 ft, 43 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 143 ft in, 857 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 2,823 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 600 fpm at the flare to 190 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 2.6° 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 2,823 ft runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 26 ft left of the centreline, and stayed about there down the rollout, 35 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 arrow beside the runway is the crosswind, pointing the way the air was moving, so it pushed the aircraft that way.
The 143 ft touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The Kitfox STI departed from runway 17 at CYBW Calgary / Springbank Airport, achieving a take-off roll of 897 ft which represented 18 % of the available runway. Liftoff occurred at 54 kt. Ambient conditions were 38 °F with a wind of 4 kt from 310°, a 3 kt cross-wind component and a 2 kt tail-wind component.
Climb commenced immediately after liftoff, beginning overhead CYBW and gaining altitude from 4,455 ft asl to 6,522 ft asl, an increase of 2,067 ft. The climb was completed in 3 minutes while covering 4 nm.
Cruise was established 4 miles east of CYBW and persisted for 23 minutes, during which the aircraft traversed 20 nm at level flight.
Descent began 3 miles north-west of CFY4 Winters Aire Park Airport, descending from 4,949 ft asl to 3,462 ft asl, a loss of 1,487 ft. The descent lasted 3 minutes and covered 2 nm.
The final approach to runway 10 at CFY4 proceeded from 626 ft agl to 24 ft agl in 25 seconds, and the aircraft scored on the stabilisation gates.
Landing on runway 10, whose length is 2,823 ft, was executed with a threshold speed of 46 kt, slightly below target. Touchdown occurred 135 ft down the runway at 42 kt, with a firm rate of -305 fpm and a lateral deviation of 26 ft from the centreline. Local weather reported 46 °F, wind 3 kt from 150°, a 2 kt cross-wind and a 2 kt head-wind. Total landing distance measured 270 ft, representing 10 % of the runway.
Runway rollout alignment was noted to be slightly off centreline by 44 ft.
Taxi-in to the parking area required 3 minutes and covered less than 1 nm.
In total, the flight covered 28 nm, took 35 minutes, and consumed 0 lbs of fuel.
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