Takeoff & Landing Performance
Genuine published performance tables: weight, pressure altitude, temperature, wind, runway and configuration give takeoff and landing distances with applicability restrictions.
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Set the weight (Weight & Balance sends it with its link), the pressure altitude — or the field elevation and altimeter setting — the temperature, the runway and the wind. The readout shows each step the POH asks for: the table value (read between the printed rows, columns and weight sheets, or at the next higher printed values if you choose the POH's conservative reading), then the wind correction, then the grass correction.
Cessna 172S only: Information Manual 172SIM incorporating POH/AFM Revision 5 (19 July 2004, P/N 172SPHUS05), serials 172S8001 and on, conventional panel — not the G1000 (NAV III) handbook. For training — not for flight planning of a specific airplane; use the POH/AFM for your serial number. Distances apply only with the short-field technique and the conditions printed with each table.
The stage draws both distances to scale on a runway of the length you enter: the amber ground roll, the cyan climb to (or descent from) 50 ft, and the 50-ft obstacle posts at the runway ends. Green fits, coral does not. Drag the runway end to see how much runway the airplane needs.
Outside the printed data there is no number: below 0 °C or above 40 °C, above 8,000 ft, below the lightest takeoff table (2200 lb) when interpolating, above 2550 lb, or with more than 10 kt of tailwind. The tool never extrapolates a POH table.
Assumption: the wind and grass notes are applied proportionally and to both distances as described under Sources & method; the runway check assumes a 50-ft obstacle at each runway end and adds no safety factor of its own.
Data: POH Figure 5-5 Short Field Takeoff Distance at 2550, 2400 and 2200 lb (pp. 5-14 to 5-16) and Figure 5-11 Short Field Landing Distance at 2550 lb (p. 5-23), transcribed twice independently (text layer and page image) with an empty diff. Interpolation: bilinear in pressure altitude and temperature inside a sheet, linear between weight sheets; exact at every printed cell. Landing is printed for 2550 lb only, so every landing weight up to 2550 lb reads the 2550-lb figures (the next higher printed weight; no weight correction is printed).
Corrections exactly as the notes print them: “Decrease distances 10% for each 9 knots headwind. For operation with tail winds up to 10 knots, increase distances by 10% for each 2 knots” (applied proportionally to both distances, as the POH sample does: 12 kt → 13.3 %, which the sample rounds to 13 %); dry grass “increase distances by 15% (landing 45%) of the ‘ground roll’ figure” — the increment is added to the ground roll and to the total; landing with flaps up “increase the approach speed by 9 KIAS and allow for 35% longer distances”. No slope correction is printed, so none is offered.
Wind components come from the same function as Crosswind / Headwind Component (equal for 2,000 random cases in the tests); pressure and density altitude from the same functions as TAS / CAS / EAS (equal in the tests). Verified: the POH sample problem — 1285 / 2190 ft read at 2550 lb, 2,000 ft, 30 °C, then 1114 / 1898 ft with the 12-kt headwind (POH: 1118 / 1905 with its rounded 13 %); landing 650 / 1455 ft; the specification page values (960 / 1630 ft takeoff, 575 / 1335 ft landing at sea level, 15 °C).
- Cessna Model 172S Information Manual 172SIM incorporating the Pilot’s Operating Handbook and FAA Approved Airplane Flight Manual, Revision 5 (19 July 2004), P/N 172SPHUS05 — applies to Model 172S serials 172S8001 and on, conventional panel (not G1000); for training, not for flight planning of a specific airplane
- POH Section 5 Performance — Use of performance charts and sample problem (pp. 5-3 to 5-8), Figure 5-4 Crosswind Components (p. 5-13, 15 kt demonstrated, not a limitation), Figure 5-5 Short Field Takeoff Distance sheets 1–3 with notes 1–4 (pp. 5-14 to 5-16), Figure 5-11 Short Field Landing Distance with notes 1–4 (p. 5-23)
- POH Section 2 — maximum takeoff and landing weight 2550 lb (p. 2-7); Introduction performance specifications (p. ii)
- FAA Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, FAA-H-8083-25C (2023), ch. 11 Aircraft Performance — pressure and density altitude, reading takeoff and landing charts, effect of wind and runway surface
- Airplane Flying Handbook FAA-H-8083-3C, ch. 9 — crosswind and headwind components (shared with Crosswind / Headwind Component)