Infinite Flight landing rate, on your arrival card.

What the landing card shows

When the flight you follow touches down, an arrival card opens over the map, welcoming you to the destination city with its local time. It shows:

• The touchdown rate in feet per minute, stamped Butter, Smooth, Firm or Hard, on a scale that shows where it falls.
• G-force, touchdown speed, distance off the centerline and ground roll.
• Flight time, fuel used, distance flown and the XP the flight earned.

Rows without data are left out. Close the card with Close or the Esc key.

Butter, Smooth, Firm or Hard

The stamp depends on the touchdown rate alone:

These bands are Infinite Aeroshow's own, not an official Infinite Flight or airline rating. G-force, speed and the other numbers don't change the stamp, and the stamp doesn't change anything in your Infinite Flight account.

Where the number comes from

Infinite Flight publishes a touchdown record for each flight on its live servers, with the vertical speed, g-force, speed, distance from the centerline and ground roll of every landing. When the flight you follow lands, Infinite Aeroshow asks Infinite Flight for that record and converts the vertical speed to feet per minute. If the flight touched down more than once, as with touch-and-goes, the card shows the last landing.

If the record isn't available yet when the flight lands, the card shows an estimate instead: the last descent rate the live data showed in the air, marked ≈, without a stamp or the touchdown numbers. While the card stays open, it checks once more five minutes later and stamps itself if the record has arrived.

Infinite Aeroshow doesn't keep a history of landings. The card is gone once you close it, so take a screenshot if you want to keep one.

When the card appears

• Infinite Flight only. The card needs Infinite Flight's touchdown record, so VATSIM flights don't get one.
• Seen in the air first. It opens when a flight you're following goes from airborne to on the ground, once per flight.
• Any live flight you follow. Your own or a friend's, on any Infinite Flight live server.
• Economy and First Class. The landing card is one of the flight information features in Economy, so First Class and the 100-hour free trial include it too.
• Live flights, not the demo. The demo plays a sample flight without an Infinite Flight record, so it has no landing card.

On the approach

• Get stable early. By about 1,000 feet above the runway, be lined up, configured for landing, on the approach speed and on the glide path. If you're not, go around and fly it again.
• Hold the speed. Too fast and the aircraft floats down the runway; too slow and it sinks onto it. Small, early corrections are easier than big, late ones.
• Keep the descent steady. On a standard 3-degree glide path, a descent rate of about five times your ground speed keeps you on it: roughly 700 fpm at 140 knots. That's the approach rate. The flare is what brings it down for the touchdown.

In the flare

• Flare gently. Just above the runway, raise the nose a little to slow the descent and bring the thrust back to idle. A small, smooth flare beats a big, late pull.
• Land in the touchdown zone. Aim for the aiming point markings, not beyond them. A firm landing in the right place is better than a butter halfway down the runway.
• Don't chase the butter. Holding the aircraft just off the runway uses up runway and speed, and pulling the nose too high can scrape the tail. Let it settle.
• Line up with the centerline. In a crosswind, have the aircraft aligned with the runway as the wheels touch. The card's Off centerline row shows how close you got.

What about landing speed?

There's no single Infinite Flight landing speed. The right speed depends on the aircraft type, its landing weight, the flap setting and the wind, so fly the approach speed for your aircraft and weight, with a few knots more in gusty wind. The card's Touchdown speed row shows the speed you actually landed at, so you can compare one flight with the next.