Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Improve the pattern downwind leg
The 45-degrees-behind-the-wing cue assumes you can turn your head and use peripheral vision. Downwind spacing cues like "put the wingtip halfway up the strut" assume a fixed, known eyepoint. Neither survives a monitor unmodified. If you fly on a fixed monitor, stop pretending and fly a numbers-based circuit.
Read more in Pattern WorkStart to finish · 13 stages, 11 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 66 kt with 4.7° 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 296 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,881 m of runway left; then climbing at 450 fpm on average to 296 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 2,737 m runway.
Rolled from 172 m in, never more than 1 m off the centreline. Airborne 17 % 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.
The final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 2.1 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 70 ft below 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.
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 206 m right of the centreline at 2.1 nm, then inside the band from 1.1 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.
Over the threshold
Touchdown
Little crosswind (1 kt): nothing to correct for. Touched down with the nose 1° left of the track, wings level.
Wind 356° at 2 kt · 1 kt tail · 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 24 s, an average deceleration of 0.06 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 7 ft, 43 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 148 m in, 157 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 70 fpm at 5 ft to 50 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 1.4° 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 1,524 m of the 2,737 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 3 m left of the centreline and drifted to 15 m left on 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 148 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 30 at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, with the Sierra C24R aircraft taking off after a distance of 317 meters, which accounted for 12% of the runway. The liftoff speed was 66 knots, and the local weather conditions at the time were characterized by a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and a wind speed of 2 knots from a direction of 356 degrees. This resulted in a crosswind of 2 knots and a headwind of 1 knot.
As the aircraft entered the left-hand pattern from runway 30, it covered a distance of less than 1 nautical mile in 100 seconds. The left-hand pattern crosswind was also navigated with ease, with the aircraft covering a distance of less than 1 nautical mile in just 18 seconds. The pattern downwind turn was completed over a distance of 2 nautical miles, with the aircraft making a turn of 45 degrees at an angle of 2.3 degrees to the runway.
The final approach to runway 12 was made from the north-west, with the aircraft heading 113.0 degrees at an altitude of 143.9 meters above ground level and a distance of 1 nautical mile from the runway. The landing on runway 12 was successful, with the aircraft touching down at a speed of 55 knots and a touchdown distance of 146 meters, which accounted for 22% of the runway. The touchdown speed and rate were both considered good, with the aircraft experiencing a touchdown rate of -0.2 meters per second.
However, the runway rollout alignment was not perfectly aligned with the centerline, with the aircraft deviating by 15.9 meters. The total landing distance was 612 meters, and the total flight distance was 5 nautical miles, which was completed in 5 minutes. The flight also consumed 17 kilograms of fuel.
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