Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Slow down before tight turns
See Departure Taxi
Twenty knots on a monitor produces the visual sensation of about ten. The advice to "taxi at a walking pace" cannot fix this, because your sense of walking pace is exactly the thing that's broken. Put the groundspeed readout in your scan and obey it for the next fifty flights, the way a student pilot leans on the airspeed indicator before learning to read attitude.
Read more in How to Taxi AnywhereStart to finish · 14 stages, 12 in the score
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
From brake release to the end of the climb, against time, then the takeoff point by point.
Lifted off at 75 kt with 1.6° 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 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 459 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 729 ft of runway left; then climbing at 710 fpm on average to 459 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 5,086 ft runway.
Rolled from 2,406 ft in, drifted right of the centreline, 11 ft at the widest, and lifted off 10 ft right. Airborne 69 % 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.
When the approach was stable
Every check met from 0.8 nm, about 360 ft above the runway, to the threshold, after the 300 ft gate. The last to settle was the centreline.
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 1.3 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 50 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. 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 1,420 ft left of the centreline at 1.3 nm, then inside the band from 0.8 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 35 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 21 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between +5 kt and +10 kt on the approach speed of 69 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
Poor landing flare
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 180° at 5 kt · 4 kt head · 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 5,000 ft of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 62 ft, 12 ft above the 50 ft target. Touched down 2,187 ft in, 1,187 ft past 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.
From 61 ft the descent stopped and turned into a climb of 240 fpm before coming down at 400 fpm to touch. The nose came up 7.1° 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 9,000 ft runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 8 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.
Touched down 2,187 ft past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The 1.43 G arrival bounced 2 times.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a taxiing period from the parking area to the runway, which took 7 minutes and covered a distance of 1 nautical mile. The aircraft, a PA28 Warrior II, then departed from runway 15 at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (KDET) in Detroit, Michigan. The takeoff distance was 1,185 feet, which accounted for 23% of the runway length. The liftoff speed was 76 knots.
As the aircraft took off, it encountered local weather conditions with a temperature of 30°F and a wind speed of 6 knots from a direction of 180°. The crosswind component was 3 knots, while the headwind component was 4 knots. After departing from the Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport, the aircraft began its enroute climb, which started overhead the airport and continued to an altitude of 2,042 feet above sea level. This climb phase covered a distance of 3 nautical miles and took 2 minutes, with an increase in altitude of 946 feet.
Following the enroute climb, the aircraft entered a level cruise phase, which lasted for 11 minutes and covered a distance of 14 nautical miles. This phase took place overhead Harper Woods, Michigan. After the cruise phase, the aircraft began its final approach to runway 19 at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base Airport (KMTC). The approach was made from the north, with a heading of 181.0°, and at an altitude of 320 feet above ground level (agl) and 1 nautical mile from the runway.
The landing on runway 19 was successful, with a touchdown point located 855 feet beyond the touchdown zone. The touchdown speed was 54 knots, which was good, and the touchdown rate was -162 feet per minute (fpm), also considered good. The runway touchdown alignment was very good, indicating a smooth and controlled landing. The local weather conditions during the landing were a temperature of 28°F and a wind speed of 4 knots from a direction of 180°, with a headwind component of 4 knots.
The total landing distance was 2,744 feet, which accounted for 30% of the runway length. The runway rollout alignment was also very good, indicating a smooth and controlled rollout. After landing, the aircraft taxied to the parking area, which took 2 minutes and covered a distance of less than 1 nautical mile. The total flight distance was 20 nautical miles, and the flight duration was 16 minutes. The aircraft used 15 pounds of fuel during the flight.
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