Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Know your rotation speed
See Departure Roll
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 · 14 stages, 12 in the score
Events
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 69 kt with 3.7° 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 549 ft. The distance scale changes past the runway end.
Reached 35 ft with 407 m of runway left; then climbing at 720 fpm on average to 549 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 1,053 m runway.
Rolled from 80 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 2 m at the widest, and lifted off 1.6 m right. Airborne 40 % 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, 0.8 nm out at 79 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.
Good: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
Off heading: 17° 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 WorkLate: turned base with the threshold 33° behind, against 45°.
The stopwatch. From abeam the threshold, fly roughly 30 to 45 seconds before turning base, in nil wind at 172 speeds. Treat that as a starting value and calibrate it. If your finals keep coming out at 400 ft instead of 500, add a few seconds. Then adjust for wind, roughly a second per knot of headwind on final (a headwind on final is a tailwind on downwind, carrying you further from the field per second).
Read more in Pattern WorkThe final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
High from 0.7 nm, where the final began, to 0.2 nm (up to 470 ft over), then back on it to the threshold.
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.
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 33 m right of the centreline at 0.7 nm, then inside the band from 0.3 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 78 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 48 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band all the way, between +2 kt and +17 kt on the approach speed of 55 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
Calm: nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
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 50 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 5 s, an average deceleration of 0.24 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 1,053 m of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 14 ft, 36 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 109 m in, 196 m short of 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 1,053 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 430 fpm at 13 ft to 140 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 1,053 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 1.8 m left of the centreline, and stayed within 2.3 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 109 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a departure roll from runway 24 at 4N1 Greenwood Lake. The aircraft, a DR400, accelerated down the runway and lifted off at a speed of 69 kt, covering a distance of 365 m, which was 35% of the runway length. The local weather conditions at the time of takeoff were characterized by a temperature of 17 °C and a wind speed of 0 kt at 0 °, resulting in no crosswind or headwind.
After takeoff, the pilot entered a left-hand pattern, navigating the aircraft in a circular path around the airport. The entry into the pattern was smooth, with the aircraft covering a distance of less than 1 nm in 46 seconds. The pilot then executed a left-hand pattern crosswind turn, which was completed in less than 1 nm in 19 seconds. The downwind turn was a 45-degree angle to the runway, covering a distance of 2 nm, and took 66 seconds to complete. The base leg turn was also a 45-degree angle to the runway, covering a distance of 1 nm.
As the aircraft approached the runway, the pilot initiated a final approach from the north-east, heading 227.0 ° at 0 nm and 265 ft above ground level. The landing was smooth, with the aircraft touching down on the runway at a speed of 49 kt and a distance of 105 m, which was 17% of the runway length. The touchdown rate was smooth at -144 fpm, and the runway touchdown alignment was very good.
The total landing distance was 183 m, and the runway rollout alignment was perfect. The pilot's performance was impressive, considering the favorable weather conditions. The total flight distance was 6 nm, and the flight took 7 minutes to complete, using 2 kg of fuel. Overall, the flight was a success, with the pilot demonstrating excellent flying skills and adherence to standard procedures.
Scroll or drag the slider to zoom · double-click to reset · hover for values