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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 · 22 stages, 21 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 108 kt with 5.9° 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 967 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,514 m of runway left; then climbing at 2,040 fpm on average to 967 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 2,280 m runway.
Rolled from 40 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 11 m at the widest, and lifted off 11 m left. Airborne 23 % 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.
Two stabilised approach gates, each with seven checks, where the approach path is 1,000 ft and 500 ft above the runway.
At the 500 ft gate: sink rate more than 600 fpm beyond what the glideslope needed and centreline more than 1° off.
When the approach was stable
Every check met from 2.2 to 2.0 nm, then not again: left of the centreline from 2.0 nm and fast from 0.8 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 4 nm to the threshold, never more than 270 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, 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.
Inside the 1° band from 4 nm to 2.0 nm, then 124 m left of it from 2.0 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 57 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 34 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band from 4 nm to 0.8 nm, then fast to the threshold (up to +33 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
Little crosswind (2 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, wings level.
Wind 270° at 4 kt · 3 kt head · 2 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 109 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 15 s, an average deceleration of 0.30 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 9 ft, 41 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 242 m in, 63 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 1,524 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 340 fpm at 6 ft to 160 fpm at touchdown. The pitch barely changed.
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 2,280 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 2.5 m left of the centreline, and stayed about there down the rollout, 3.4 m 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 242 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The flight began with a taxiing period from the parking area to the runway, which took approximately 1 minute and covered less than 1 nautical mile. The aircraft, a PC-21, then departed from runway 23L at LELC San Javier Airport. The takeoff distance was 549 meters, which accounted for 24% of the runway length. The liftoff speed was 108 knots.
The local weather conditions at the time of takeoff were characterized by a temperature of 17 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 4 knots from a direction of 269 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 3 knots and a headwind of 3 knots. The aircraft climbed from 1,039 feet above sea level to 14,337 feet above sea level, an increase of 13,298 feet, in 4 minutes and covering 11 nautical miles.
The enroute climb started again 8 miles east of La Union, where the aircraft climbed from 14,770 feet above sea level to 18,923 feet above sea level, an increase of 4,154 feet, in 2 minutes and covering 3 nautical miles. The aircraft then entered a level cruise, lasting 2 minutes and covering less than 1 nautical mile. Another climb started 8 miles south east of La Union, where the aircraft climbed from 19,543 feet above sea level to 20,030 feet above sea level, an increase of 487 feet, in 2 minutes and covering 7 nautical miles.
The aircraft then entered a prolonged level cruise, lasting 52 minutes and covering 51 nautical miles. The enroute descent started 4 miles east of LECE AeroCieza Cieza, where the aircraft descended from 20,281 feet above sea level to 4,005 feet above sea level, a decrease of 16,276 feet, in 7 minutes and covering 28 nautical miles. The aircraft then entered another level cruise, lasting 10 minutes and covering 16 nautical miles.
The enroute descent started again 6 miles south east of Torrevieja, where the aircraft descended from 4,021 feet above sea level to 1,304 feet above sea level, a decrease of 2,717 feet, in 4 minutes and covering 10 nautical miles. The final approach to runway 23L at LELC San Javier Airport was made from the north east, heading 226.0 degrees at 4 nautical miles and 1,287 feet above ground level.
The landing on runway 23L was successful, with a touchdown distance of 243 meters and a touchdown speed of 110 knots, which was slightly fast. The touchdown rate was smooth at -109 feet per minute. However, the runway touchdown position was slightly misaligned by 3.4 meters from the centerline. The local weather conditions at the time of landing were characterized by a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 4 knots from a direction of 270 degrees, resulting in a crosswind of 3 knots and a headwind of 3 knots.
The total landing distance was 651 meters, which accounted for 29% of the runway length. The runway rollout alignment was perfect. The total flight distance was 134 nautical miles, taking 60 minutes, and the aircraft used 271 kilograms of fuel.
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