Performance Planning: Take-off, Climb, Cruise and Landing
Four phases, four constraints
Performance planning answers four questions: can I take off and stop or continue safely, can I climb clear of obstacles, can I cruise at the chosen level, and can I land and stop within the available distance. Each phase has limiting masses and limiting conditions, and the lowest of them governs the flight.
Take-off and climb
Understand the take-off distances: the accelerate-stop distance, the take-off distance to 35 ft, and the take-off run available, clearway and stopway. Know how mass, pressure altitude, temperature, wind and runway slope and surface affect each. For climb, know the segments and the gradients required, and how a net gradient differs from a gross gradient. Obstacle clearance depends on the net flight path, so the gross-to-net reduction matters.
Cruise and landing
Cruise performance involves the choice of level and speed for range or endurance, and the effect of wind and temperature. Landing performance depends on landing distance available, runway condition, wind, temperature, pressure altitude and the approach configuration. Know whether factors are applied to the demonstrated distance and why.
Traps
Examiners love the difference between a distance available and a distance required, and between a factored and an unfactored figure. Watch for questions where a tailwind or a wet runway removes a margin, and for the assumption that a higher pressure altitude always reduces landing distance; it lengthens it.
Rule of thumb
A rough guide: each 1000 ft of pressure altitude costs about 3 percent of take-off performance, and a 10 °C rise above ISA costs a similar order of magnitude. Treat these as sanity checks, never as substitutes for the approved data.