A Different Kind of Landing

All of your landings in your initial training typically are to a full stop--that is, you touched down and stayed on the runway, applied the brakes, and taxied off to return to the hold-short line for another takeoff. On a busy morning with many airplanes in the traffic pattern, your flight instructor says something different is on the agenda: a touch and go.

Power should be reduced slowly and smoothly.

Raise the flaps to takeoff position before power is applied.

Don't forget to readjust trim prior to the takeoff.

With the airplane in takeoff configuration, it's time to add power.

He talks you through the procedure on the ground. Upon touchdown, you'll return the flaps to the takeoff configuration, adjust the trim if necessary, smoothly apply full power, and use the rudder to keep the airplane on the centerline until you rotate. It sounds simple, and it is--even if the first time you try it, you might worry that you'll run out of runway before you get the airplane back into the air.

The combination of a landing and takeoff, performed as one fluid operation through touchdown, rolling reconfiguration, and liftoff, saves time and keeps the conga line of swooping training airplanes moving around the traffic pattern. The touch and go may have its drawbacks, but it is commonly used in training around the world. Even students who don't normally do touch and goes should be familiar with them, since it's possible that a control tower could ask for one instead of a full-stop landing, for better traffic separation.

What's wrong with touch and go?

Mention touch and goes in any gathering of flight instructors and you'll probably start a discussion. Many CFIs adamantly refuse to teach the maneuver, insisting that only full-stop landings and taxi-back takeoffs are useful for learning. Other instructors teach touch and goes as a matter of course.

Why is there objection to touch and goes in some quarters? The answer lies in the need for some extra-careful flying at a time when the aircraft is in a vulnerable, potentially hazardous situation--rolling at high speed down a runway of limited width and length--a condition prolonged by the joining of two difficult maneuvers into one. More than just a landing connected to a takeoff, the touch and go must be taught as a separate skill to deal with a specific need.

Other drawbacks of touch and goes are the stresses generated by taking a (relatively) cold, gliding engine to full power, which compresses cylinder-head temperature variations into a second of time, and the extra runway consumed while cleaning up an airplane on the roll. I used to instruct from a 2,600-foot runway where we were prohibited from doing touch and goes. It was felt that a tardy liftoff, following a landing with extra float, would result in a shortage of altitude over the town's rooftops.

If your instructor or school management has a policy against doing touch and goes, by all means obey the embargo. But you can still ask to be shown a touch and go as a necessary way to abort a landing after the airplane has already touched down. This could be required if another airplane rolls out onto the runway ahead, or the wind suddenly gusts, or you realize that you won't get stopped by the end of the runway.

I personally do not use touch and goes as a primary training maneuver unless the airport's traffic situation demands it, just be-cause I like to have a minute or so of quiet taxi-back time to critique the landing. I can communicate with the student more successfully on the ground than I can while he or she is busy flying the airplane. Rather than viewing the taxiing as a waste of time, I find I can teach the art of landing with fewer trips around the pattern, because there's a better transfer of knowledge.

Yet another option is the stop-and-go if the runway is reasonably long. It avoids having to reconfigure during a rollout--one of the main objections to the touch and go--and allows the student the experience of bringing the aircraft to a full stop on the ground while saving time over taxiing back for the next takeoff.

Doing it the right way

Normally a touch and go should be initiated only after the actual landing maneuver is completed--that is, when the wheels are firmly in contact with the runway, bearing weight, and under control. Unlike performing a go-around from a balked landing, the first order of business is to retract the flaps to their takeoff setting. This prevents the airplane from hopping back into the air as soon as power is applied. By removing the lift generated by full flaps, the airplane is placed in the proper takeoff configuration and will roll in a more stable condition. Many airplanes tend to "wheelbarrow" on the nosewheel if full throttle is applied immediately after landing with flaps still fully extended.

If power is added before retracting the landing flaps, there's also a high probability that the airplane will lift off prematurely, then sink back to the runway as the flaps are brought up. The nose gear may hit, initiating a porpoise, if the nose attitude isn't raised to compensate for the trim and lift change that occurs from retracting flaps. All this can be avoided by taking time to move the flap handle before advancing the throttle.

Because the runway has been going by at a 60-knot clip while reconfiguring the flaps, it's necessary to apply takeoff power expeditiously. Move the throttle in a deliberate push to fully open, but do it over the space of a second or two, to avoid the sudden surge in power that can stress the engine.

Carburetor heat should come off before power is added, and a quick trim adjustment to the takeoff range is needed. Don't take the time to trim precisely; your eyes should be on the runway and your attention kept on the looming liftoff. As the airplane accelerates, keep the nosewheel lightly in contact with the runway by holding the yoke slightly aft of neutral.

Definitions Touch and go: Aircraft lands and departs on a runway without stopping or exiting the runway. Stop and go: Aircraft lands and comes to a full stop on the runway, then takes off from that point. Full-stop, taxi back: Aircraft lands, exits the runway, and taxis to the departure end. Low approach: An approach over an airport or runway (VFR or IFR), including a go-around in which the pilot intentionally does not make contact with the runway. Go-around: ATC instruction for a pilot to abandon his or her approach, or a pilot chooses to do so (before or after touchdown) for conflicting traffic, an obstruction on the runway, or other reasons. Closed traffic: Successive operations involving takeoffs, landings, or low approaches where the aircraft does not exit the traffic pattern. Cleared for the option: An approach requested by a pilot that allows either a touch and go, missed approach, low approach, stop and go, or full-stop landing.

Too many touch and goes turn into carrier-landing arrivals, as the nose gear instantly follows the main gear's touchdown into a three-point high-speed rollout, and then the flaps and power come up and the airplane goes back into the air. Remember, the intent is to practice a landing--just as if it were to be a full-stop exit of the runway--followed by a takeoff, with as many of the nuances of a standing start as possible. Thus, in a proper touch and go the airplane rolls briefly after landing, the nose gear is lifted once again as the airspeed nears the recommended rotation speed, there's a second of waiting while the wings gather lift in the proper pitch attitude, and the takeoff occurs without lurching. Once the airplane is climbing at V_Y, the pitch trim can be fine-tuned and any leftover chores completed, such as retracting take-off flaps. If there are other airplanes in the pattern, acquire the traffic you're expected to follow and maintain spacing by adjusting the timing of your crosswind turn. During the downwind leg, you can expect the control tower to give you a "cleared to land" or, if traffic is light, "cleared for the option"--the latter means that you can touch and go, stop and go, make a full stop and exit, or execute a go-around. If you're at a nontowered field, announce your intentions on the downwind leg; "Piper Six-Two-Bravo, downwind for a touch and go, Runway Three-Two." This allows others to anticipate your moves.

At a tower-controlled field, it's typical to keep touch and goes ("closed traffic") in a circuit that avoids incoming arrivals, so you could be asked to switch your pattern from left-hand to right-hand to stay separated. The controller may instruct you to "extend your downwind" to allow room for departures or arrivals, in which case he or she may "call the base," meaning you are not to turn onto the base leg until you're cleared to do so.

As you finish your practice period, tell the tower controller you'll be making a full-stop landing, but do it soon enough to let them plan for the amount of extra time you'll need to clear the runway. You can keep the flow going by planning your touchdown for a spot conveniently spaced from the taxiway turnoff, so there's no delay.

At towered airports, try not to make a 180-degree turn on the runway to reach a missed turnoff, unless told to do so. Otherwise, add power and taxi to the next exit as quickly as safety permits.

Touch-and-go practice shouldn't take up an entire hour of solo flight time. There's a numbing effect after a half-hour or so that retards progress, and the landings tend to get worse instead of better. Fly out to the practice area for a warm-up session of climbing and gliding turns, slow flight, stalls, steep turns, or some ground-reference maneuvers before ending the period with several touch-and-go circuits. Expect each trip around the field to use a tenth of an hour on the Hobbs meter, depending on the traffic density.

Properly done, touch-and-go practice can give pilots a compressed exposure to all the skills needed to take an airplane into the air and return safely to earth. They are also a form of go-around that might have to be initiated after the airplane is on the ground. It's probably wise to practice standing-start takeoffs and full-stop landings, to finish out the flow of airspeed and control feel missed by doing "circuits and bumps." But knowing how to perform touch and goes properly should be part of every pilot's repertoire.

LeRoy Cook has been an active flight instructor since 1965 and has had more than 1,350 articles published.

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