About This File

Landing Monitor XP12 – Version 1.0.3

Landing Monitor XP12 is a complete landing-analysis tool for X-Plane 12, designed to provide detailed touchdown, flare and rollout feedback after every flight.

The plugin records the final approach from approximately 50 ft radio altitude, analyses the pilot’s longitudinal control input, detects the pre-flare and flare phases, identifies the landing runway, measures centerline performance and calculates a detailed Landing Score.

It is intended for flight-simulation analysis and training.

Main Features

Real-Time Flight Data

A configurable compact HUD displays:

Total, longitudinal, lateral and vertical acceleration
Maximum total acceleration
IAS, TAS and groundspeed
Pitch, roll, angle of attack and crab angle
Thrust, drag, lift and aircraft weight
Lift-to-weight and thrust-to-drag ratios
Landing Monitor status
Current script version

Every item can be enabled or disabled independently.

Detailed Touchdown Analysis

After landing, the plugin records and displays:

Landing rate
Peak G
Vertical impact energy
Touchdown IAS and groundspeed
Pitch, roll and angle of attack
Crab angle
Heading and track error
Headwind and crosswind components
Bounce count
Runway and airport identification
Distance from the runway threshold
Signed centerline deviation in metres and feet
Landing Score and Landing Quality

Peak G is captured during the first 0.75 seconds following initial contact.

Relative Flare and Pre-Flare Detection

Version 1.0.3 introduces a fully relative flare-detection system based only on the filtered longitudinal joystick-deflection curve.

The algorithm does not require a fixed joystick percentage and does not use pitch, vertical speed or angle of attack to validate the flare.

FLARE is selected from the first ascending control-input phase reaching more than 80% of the maximum filtered joystick deflection recorded during that landing.
PRE-FLARE is selected from the last earlier ascending phase reaching more than 50% of the same maximum.
A relative slope check refines the effective beginning of the flare and prevents a long, nearly flat control-input section from placing the marker too early.

This relative method allows the detector to adapt to aircraft requiring very different control-input amplitudes.

Flare & Rollout Analysis Graphs

The analysis window provides synchronized graphs for:

Vertical speed to touchdown
Filtered longitudinal joystick deflection
Aircraft pitch
Radio altitude
Lateral deviation during rollout

The graphs include clearly identified:

PRE-FLARE marker
FLARE marker
TOUCHDOWN marker
Airport and runway
Detection thresholds and phase information

Vertical speed and joystick data stop at touchdown, while pitch and radio-altimeter data continue for two additional seconds. Rollout deviation continues until 30 kt or until a runway exit is detected.

Accurate Runway Selection

The runway database respects the priority order defined in scenery_packs.ini.

For each airport, the first enabled scenery providing physical runway data is retained, while lower-priority duplicate definitions are ignored.

At touchdown, the plugin uses a geographic runway index and performs exact geometry calculations on no more than 24 nearby candidates. This avoids scanning the complete global runway database during landing and helps ensure that custom-airport geometry is used correctly.

Revised Landing Score

The Version 1.0.3 Landing Score is based on four categories:

Centerline deviation: 30 points
Flare or pre-flare score distance: 25 points
Wind-aware crab angle: 20 points
Peak G: 25 points

Full centerline credit is awarded inside ±1 metre.

The accepted crab-angle range changes according to the crosswind component:

Crosswind below 5 kt: ±1°
Crosswind from 5 to 15 kt: ±2°
Crosswind above 15 kt: ±3°

Landing Quality is based on Peak G rather than vertical speed. Landing rate remains displayed and logged but does not affect the score.

Automatic Post-Landing Display

When enabled, applying at least 50% parking brake after a finalized landing automatically opens:

Landing Monitor
Flare & Rollout Analysis

The trigger reads two parking-brake DataRefs, stores the detected state and retries the deferred window-opening request until both windows are confirmed.

The automatic display can be disabled in Settings without disabling monitoring, scoring, graph recording or CSV export.

Independent Windows and Persistent Settings

Three windows are controlled independently:

Compact Real-Time HUD
Landing Monitor
Flare & Rollout Analysis

All windows remain closed when X-Plane or FlyWithLua starts. Monitoring continues in the background.

Display choices, HUD position, custom coordinates, CSV separator and the automatic parking-brake option are saved between sessions.

Automatic CSV Logging

Each completed landing is automatically saved to a per-aircraft CSV file.

Version 1.0.3 uses:

LandingLog_v9_<separator>_<aircraft>.csv

The log includes touchdown data, runway and wind information, flare and pre-flare measurements, score-distance information, Peak-G-based Landing Quality and the final Landing Score.

Requirements

X-Plane 12
FlyWithLua NG
A supported 64-bit operating system
Write permission in the FlyWithLua Scripts folder

Installation

Close X-Plane 12.
Copy:

LandingMonitorFlareAnalysis_XP12_v1.0.3.lua

into:

X-Plane 12/Resources/plugins/FlyWithLua/Scripts/

Remove or archive previous Landing Monitor Lua versions.
Start X-Plane.
Open the FlyWithLua menu to access the Landing Monitor windows, settings and commands.

When updating from an older version, the runway cache may be rebuilt automatically. Rebuild the runway database manually after changing scenery_packs.ini or installing a new airport scenery.

What Is New in Version 1.0.3

New relative FLARE and PRE-FLARE detection
Filtered joystick-deflection analysis
Complete approach history retained below approximately 50 ft
Effective flare-onset refinement using relative slope
PRE-FLARE measurements and score-distance calculation
Scenery-priority runway selection
Version 2 runway cache
Geographic runway index and limited local candidate search
Peak-G-based Landing Quality
Revised Landing Score
Wind-aware crab-angle tolerance
Full centerline credit inside ±1 metre
Simplified filtered-joystick graph
Script-version labels in all main windows
Improved parking-brake automatic window opening
Updated LandingLog_v9 CSV format

Important Notice

Landing Monitor XP12 is a flight-simulation analysis tool. It is not certified avionics and must not be used for real-world flight operations, aircraft maintenance or regulatory compliance.

Edited Monday at 11:31 PM by cmbaviator
update v1.0.3

What's New in Version 1.0.3 See changelog

Released Monday at 11:25 PM

----------------------------------------------------------------------

-- CHANGELOG

----------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Version 1.0.3

-- This release consolidates the validated Version 1.0.3 development branch

-- into one official update relative to Version 1.0.2.

-- FLARE AND PRE-FLARE DETECTION

-- - Replaced the Version 1.0.2 fixed joystick/pitch flare criteria with a

-- post-touchdown analysis based only on the filtered longitudinal joystick

-- deflection recorded below approximately 50 ft AGL.

-- - The complete pre-touchdown history is retained. The filtered derivative is

-- scanned chronologically to identify every ascending phase beginning at an

-- interpolated derivative zero.

-- - FLARE is the first ascending phase whose peak exceeds 80 percent of the

-- maximum positive filtered joystick deflection for that landing.

-- - PRE-FLARE is the last earlier ascending phase whose peak exceeds 50 percent

-- of the same landing-specific maximum. No absolute joystick-deflection

-- threshold, pitch response, vertical speed or angle of attack is used to

-- qualify either phase.

-- - After the FLARE phase is selected, the reported onset is refined using a

-- fully relative slope gate: at least 25 percent of the maximum positive

-- slope of that phase, sustained for 0.15 second. The latest derivative zero

-- within the preceding 0.40 second is preferred; otherwise the interpolated

-- slope-threshold crossing is used. A phase-zero fallback preserves a valid

-- detection if the refined onset cannot be confirmed.

-- - The score-distance start remains FLARE when no PRE-FLARE exists. When both

-- markers exist, the score-distance start is the midpoint of the flown path

-- between PRE-FLARE and FLARE. The physical FLARE-to-touchdown distance is

-- still displayed and logged separately.

-- FLARE AND ROLLOUT ANALYSIS DISPLAY

-- - Added PRE-FLARE, FLARE and TOUCHDOWN markers and landing-specific detector

-- diagnostics to the completed analysis.

-- - The longitudinal joystick graph now shows only the filtered detector

-- signal. Its scale, MIN/MID/MAX values and sample count all use that same

-- filtered series.

-- - Vertical speed and filtered joystick data stop at touchdown. Aircraft pitch

-- and radio altitude continue to touchdown plus 2.0 seconds. Lateral

-- deviation remains a touchdown-to-rollout graph ending at 30 kt or at a

-- confirmed rapid runway exit.

-- - Added the script version to the Compact Real-Time HUD, Landing Monitor and

-- Flare & Rollout Analysis titles and content.

-- RUNWAY DATABASE AND CENTERLINE SEARCH

-- - Runway database rebuilding now follows enabled SCENERY_PACK entries in

-- scenery_packs.ini from highest to lowest priority. The first apt.dat that

-- provides physical runway data for an airport owns that airport; lower-

-- priority duplicate airport definitions are ignored.

-- - Disabled scenery packs are ignored. Global Airports and the default apt.dat

-- are used only as fallbacks. The accepted apt.dat source path and priority

-- are stored for touchdown diagnostics.

-- - Introduced runway-cache format Version 2. Older cache formats are rejected

-- and rebuilt automatically.

-- - Added a geographic runway index. At touchdown, only nearby spatial buckets

-- are considered and no more than 24 candidates receive the exact point-to-

-- runway-segment calculation. The worldwide runway list is no longer scanned

-- at first contact.

-- LANDING SCORE AND QUALITY

-- - Landing Quality is now classified from Peak G captured during the existing

-- 0.75-second contact window. Landing rate remains displayed and logged but

-- no longer determines the quality label or creates a score penalty.

-- - The score now contains four maximum penalties:

-- centerline deviation 30 points

-- score distance to touchdown 25 points

-- crab angle beyond wind allowance 20 points

-- touchdown load based on Peak G 25 points

-- - Centerline deviation receives full credit inside +/-1.0 m. Beyond that

-- allowance, the penalty is 2 points per additional metre, capped at 30.

-- A missing runway reference retains the 15-point fallback penalty.

-- - Crab angle receives full credit inside a crosswind-dependent allowance:

-- +/-1 degree below 5 kt crosswind

-- +/-2 degrees from 5 through 15 kt crosswind

-- +/-3 degrees above 15 kt crosswind

-- Only excess crab is penalized at 2.5 points per degree, capped at 20.

-- - Peak G receives full credit through 1.10 g. The touchdown-load penalty then

-- increases linearly to its 25-point maximum at 2.00 g.

-- LOGGING, WINDOWS AND MAINTENANCE

-- - CSV output uses the LandingLog_v9 schema, including PRE-FLARE data,

-- score-distance start data and Peak-G-based Landing Quality.

-- - Strengthened the optional parking-brake automatic display with a latched

-- trigger, deferred non-persistent window requests and repeated attempts

-- until both result-window handles are confirmed.

-- - Retained Version 1.0.2 independent window controls, persistent display

-- settings, closed startup behavior, crash-safe deferred window management,

-- aerodynamic calculations, touchdown capture and rollout-exit detection.

-- - Removed obsolete detector state, labels, helper functions and constants

-- from superseded experimental algorithms. Required FlyWithLua callback

-- parameters and global callback symbols are retained.

Sign In

Landing Monitor and Flare Analysis : Xplane 12.4+ & FlywithLua NG 1.0.3