Touch and Go – No!
Paul A. Craig, Studentpilot.com
As a flight instructor, I have made several thousand touch and goes – but I don’t do them anymore. The only real reason to do a touch and go is economy not learning or proficiency. It is true that you can get more landing practice in during an hour if you never stop, but I have concluded that the benefits don’t out weight the risks.
I understand that convincing you not to do touch and goes will take more than just my opinion, so let me present the evidence. Exhibit A is the photograph that I took of a Cessna 152 nose-down in a ditch. This was the conclusion of an attempted touch and go landing by a student pilot. On the upper horizon of the photograph you see a tree line. Those trees are on the other side of a runway that from this low angle cannot be see. The the runway is just at the top of the embankment. Exhibit B is the photograph I took from the air of the accident site. Look carefully and you will see the airplane and its position relative to the runway. This student’s instructor had told the student to make a full-stop landing, but being a student, he thought that request was just a waste of time. The weather was good. There was a slight crosswind, but no greater than 5 knots. After the airplane touched down, the student quickly transitioned from worrying about the landing to worrying about the takeoff. The end of the short runway and the trees at the far end were getting larger, so he jammed the throttle forward. The engine sputtered. Opening the throttle of a carberated engine too quickly invites more air into the engine and momentarily the fuel can’t keep up which makes the mixture suddenly very lean. A smooth throttle application is always best. But when the engine sputtered, the student became distracted. He looked inside the cockpit to see what the problem might be. With his eyes inside, the airplane came off the centerline. When he looked up and saw he was headed for the runway edge he over corrected. Remember airplanes are only tricycles – they are not very stable. Off the left side of the runway the student went. He said that he almost got the airplane stopped before he reached the top of the embankment. He pulled the mixture to idle cutoff, but it was too late. When the airplane got on the down-hill slope there was no stopping it until it hit the bottom of the ditch and flipped over. The student got out without a scratch.
My conclusion is that there is just too much going on both in and out of the cockpit to make a safe transition between takeoff and landing while in motion on a touch and go.
Read the rest of the article here.
I understand that convincing you not to do touch and goes will take more than just my opinion, so let me present the evidence. Exhibit A is the photograph that I took of a Cessna 152 nose-down in a ditch. This was the conclusion of an attempted touch and go landing by a student pilot. On the upper horizon of the photograph you see a tree line. Those trees are on the other side of a runway that from this low angle cannot be see. The the runway is just at the top of the embankment. Exhibit B is the photograph I took from the air of the accident site. Look carefully and you will see the airplane and its position relative to the runway. This student’s instructor had told the student to make a full-stop landing, but being a student, he thought that request was just a waste of time. The weather was good. There was a slight crosswind, but no greater than 5 knots. After the airplane touched down, the student quickly transitioned from worrying about the landing to worrying about the takeoff. The end of the short runway and the trees at the far end were getting larger, so he jammed the throttle forward. The engine sputtered. Opening the throttle of a carberated engine too quickly invites more air into the engine and momentarily the fuel can’t keep up which makes the mixture suddenly very lean. A smooth throttle application is always best. But when the engine sputtered, the student became distracted. He looked inside the cockpit to see what the problem might be. With his eyes inside, the airplane came off the centerline. When he looked up and saw he was headed for the runway edge he over corrected. Remember airplanes are only tricycles – they are not very stable. Off the left side of the runway the student went. He said that he almost got the airplane stopped before he reached the top of the embankment. He pulled the mixture to idle cutoff, but it was too late. When the airplane got on the down-hill slope there was no stopping it until it hit the bottom of the ditch and flipped over. The student got out without a scratch.
My conclusion is that there is just too much going on both in and out of the cockpit to make a safe transition between takeoff and landing while in motion on a touch and go.
Read the rest of the article here.
How The 1,500 Hour Rule To Become A Commercial Pilot Compromises Safety
by Gary Leff on June 7, 2023
After the Colgan Air crash in 2009, Congress was looking to take action on aviation safety. ALPA, the largest pilot union, was ready with items from its legislative agenda that it had been pushing for years. They won the ‘1,500 hour’ rule, flight time required before a pilot could be hired as a first officer at a commercial airline.
This was adopted even though both Colgan Air pilots had.. more than 1,500 hours. The rule wasn’t meant to prevent future Colgan Air disasters. It was meant to make it harder to become a pilot.
According to the FAA the 1,500 hour rule does not promote safety.
Read the rest of the article here.
This was adopted even though both Colgan Air pilots had.. more than 1,500 hours. The rule wasn’t meant to prevent future Colgan Air disasters. It was meant to make it harder to become a pilot.
- Restricting the supply of pilots increases the bargaining power of pilots. A pilot shortage drives up pilot wages.
- When United Airlines faced a pilot strike in 1985 they started hiring replacement pilots. That’s simply not possible today, a huge victory for unions.
- These are unstructured hours.
- Pilots go through training on commercial procedures and on non-normal operations
- Then they spend perhaps a year and a half flying single engine planes in good weather building up hours.
- They aren’t dealing with stalls, storms, de-icing, or numerous other problems that you want a pilot to be experienced in.
According to the FAA the 1,500 hour rule does not promote safety.
Read the rest of the article here.