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MY FS FLIGHTS
Flight Score
Improve the pattern crosswind leg
Each lap slightly wider and higher than the last, because you're unconsciously using the previous lap as your reference instead of the runway and the numbers. Invisible lap to lap, unmistakable across ten. This is the failure that only measurement catches, because your memory of lap three is gone by lap eight.
Read more in Pattern WorkStart to finish · 15 stages, 13 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 96 kt with 6.2° 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 110 ft.
Reached 35 ft with 1,923 ft of runway left; then climbing at 540 fpm on average to 110 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 5,004 ft runway.
Rolled from 344 ft in, never more than 4 ft off the centreline. Airborne 52 % 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.
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, 1.2 nm out at 116 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.
Early: turned crosswind at 411 ft. US guidance is within 300 ft of circuit height, 700 ft here, so the climb ends on downwind.
Crosswind. Turn 90 degrees when you're within about 300 ft of pattern altitude, which at a standard field means roughly 700 ft AGL, or two-thirds of the way up. That rule exists for a reason worth knowing. It means you finish the climb and level off on downwind, wings level, rather than trying to capture an altitude mid-turn. If you turn crosswind at pattern altitude instead, you arrive on downwind still cleaning up, and the abeam point catches you unconfigured.
Read more in Pattern WorkOff heading: 10° 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 WorkLost marks: scored 70.
The final from 4 nm.
Profile height against the 2.5° glideslope, with its 2° band in green.
Inside the glideslope band from 1.4 nm, where the final began, to the threshold, never more than 180 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: 2.5° here, which is about 270 ft for every nautical mile out, crossing the threshold at about 40 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 1,050 ft left of the centreline at 1.4 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.
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 from 1.4 nm, where the final began, to 0.5 nm, then fast to the threshold (up to +24 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
3 kt across from the left, which takes about 2° of crab to hold the centreline at 82 kt. Touched down with the nose 4° right of the track, away from the wind, wings level.
Wind 178° at 8 kt · 7 kt head · 3 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 77 kt at touchdown to taxi speed (30 kt) in 14 s, an average deceleration of 0.18 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 5,000 ft of the approach.
Crossed the threshold at 20 ft, 30 ft below the 50 ft target. Touched down 1,768 ft in, 768 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.
The sink went from 440 fpm at 18 ft to 120 fpm at touchdown. The nose came up 4.5° 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 5,004 ft runway, to the same scale as the side view.
Touched down 6 ft right of the centreline, and stayed within 7 ft 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 arrow beside the runway is the crosswind, pointing the way the air was moving, so it pushed the aircraft that way.
Touched down 1,768 ft past the threshold — beyond the full-score zone. The arrival was smooth.
The rest of the report
The flight began with the aircraft, a Cessna 414A, taxiing from the parking area to the runway, a process that took approximately 3 minutes and covered less than 1 nautical mile. The aircraft then departed from runway 23 at KSFZ North Central State Airport, with a takeoff distance of 2,321 feet, which accounted for 46% of the runway. The liftoff speed was 97 knots.
The local weather conditions at the time of takeoff were characterized by a temperature of 57°F and a wind speed of 6 knots from 174°. This resulted in a crosswind of 4 knots and a headwind of 5 knots. The aircraft entered the left-hand pattern from runway 23, covering a distance of less than 1 nautical mile in just 13 seconds. The left-hand pattern crosswind leg was completed in 18 seconds, covering a similar distance.
The aircraft then proceeded to the downwind leg of the pattern, which took 52 seconds to complete and covered a distance of 2 nautical miles. The base leg turn was a short 1 nautical mile, with an angle to the runway of 45 degrees and a turn radius of 8.9°. The final approach to runway 23 was made from the north-east, with a heading of 212.0° and an altitude of 306 feet above ground level, at a distance of 1 nautical mile from the runway.
The landing on runway 23 was completed at a speed of 105 knots, which was slightly higher than the threshold speed. The touchdown point was 348 feet beyond the touchdown zone, and the touchdown speed was 82 knots, which was a little fast. However, the touchdown rate was smooth at -119 feet per minute, and the runway touchdown alignment was very good. The local weather conditions at the time of landing were characterized by a temperature of 55°F and a wind speed of 8 knots from 177°, resulting in a crosswind of 5 knots and a headwind of 7 knots.
The total landing distance was 2,705 feet, which accounted for 54% of the runway. The runway rollout alignment was perfect, and the aircraft came to a stop without any issues. The taxiing to the parking area from the runway took approximately 5 minutes and covered less than 1 nautical mile. The total flight distance was 6 nautical miles, and the flight used 617 pounds of fuel.
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