Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
Events
MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Departure
Ease the yoke smoothly to hold a steady one g through the ground roll instead of letting it sag to 0.5 g.
What happened: During the ground roll the g force averaged 0.5 g, well below the smooth steady load expected while tracking the runway.
Watch for: Watch the g meter and hold it steady near one g through the roll.
See Departure Roll
Arrival
Add power on final to hold 68 kt over the threshold.
What happened: Crossing the threshold at 52 kt against 68 kt usually leaves little energy to cushion the touchdown, and a firm arrival like that often carries through into higher g on the rollout.
Watch for: Airspeed indicator: 68 kt at the threshold
When Vr arrives, an abrupt near-full-scale pull, pitch overshoots, a push, and an oscillation through the first 200 ft. It feels like “this aircraft is twitchy” but the actual fault happened before liftoff. The pitch trace needs to show a clean ramp during liftoff.
Read more in Improve Your Take-OffsStart to finish · 15 stages, 13 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.
Rotated at 64 kt, 7 kt below the 71 kt target, and lifted off at 67 kt 0.2 s later with 5.0° 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 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 takeoff, point by point
Side view from the start of the roll to 441 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,243 m of runway left; then climbing at 960 fpm on average to 441 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 1,786 m runway.
Rolled from 63 m in, drifted left of the centreline, 4 m at the widest, and lifted off 3.7 m left. Airborne 16 % 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, 0.9 nm out at 86 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.
Good: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
Good: full marks on the turn and the leg after it.
Good: full marks on the turn.
The final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 3° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 0.8 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 60 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.
Plan distance off the extended centreline, your left at the top, with the 1° band. Sideways distances are drawn 5× larger than distances along the final.
Joined 63 m right of the centreline at 0.8 nm, then inside the band from 0.4 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 34 kt fast at the 1,000 ft gate, closing to 20 at 500 ft and 10 at the threshold.
Inside the speed band from 0.8 nm, where the final began, to 0.5 nm, then slow to the threshold (up to −15 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
Perfect landing flare
No crosswind: nothing to correct for. Touched down straight, 3° of bank.
Wind 269° at 1 kt · 1 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.
From 51 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 13 s, an average deceleration of 0.09 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.
Began the flare at 19 ft, 128 m before the threshold; crossed the threshold at 3 ft, 47 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 99 m in, 206 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 440 fpm at the flare to 100 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 6.6° 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 first 1,524 m of the 1,786 m runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down on the centreline, and stayed within 1.4 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 99 m touchdown sits inside the full-score zone. The 0.89 G arrival is the firm side of smooth.
The rest of the report
Departing from Cotswold Airport (EGBP), the Piper PA-24-250 Comanche began its takeoff roll on runway 26, accelerating to a liftoff speed of 68 kt in a distance of 320 m, which represented 20% of the available runway length. The local weather conditions were characterized by a temperature of 15 °C and a light headwind of 1 kt from 270°, resulting in a negligible crosswind component.
As the aircraft entered the left-hand traffic pattern, it maintained a steady pace, completing the downwind turn in a distance of 1 nm and an angle of 82.7° to the runway. The downwind leg itself covered a distance of 2 nm in 62 seconds, allowing the pilot to assess the aircraft's performance and adjust the approach as necessary. Upon entering the base leg, the aircraft turned through an angle of 27.6° to the runway, setting up for a final approach from the east. The pilot maintained a steady heading of 259.0° at an altitude of 143 ft agl, before touching down on the runway at a speed of 43 kt and a distance of 98 m, which represented 6% of the available runway length.
The landing was characterized by a perfect touchdown rate of 18 fpm and a runway touchdown alignment that was spot on. The total landing distance of 336 m, which accounted for 21% of the runway length, was well within acceptable limits. Following touchdown, the aircraft rolled out in perfect alignment, consuming a total of 3 kg of fuel for the 7 nm flight, which took approximately 6 minutes to complete.
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