Plano Pilot
Line Up and Wait
If the Concord can do it on a wet runway. Starts at :35
Or a 747.
Or a 747.
Well, except that you never really land when you do a crash and dash.Touch and goes are a great way to master landings through repetition.
I think that we can, and have, all agreed that the cost of getting the PPL is a major entry burden to new pilots. As other have pointed out, that full-stop and taxi back adds up over the training period. Not to say the reflection time and pause in training is not beneficial but is it as beneficial as another look at the runway and all the skills learned through repetition to land well?
If getting the same amount of training over 40-45 hours was added to by another .3 you're really looking at another $2.5-3K for a license. At minimum wage here in MD for a young person that's another 295-300 hours of working to be able to afford that PPL and that's IF people do the license in 40-45 hours which seems increasingly rare.
In 1984 I started flying at 3FK, Frankling Flying field in Indiana. 2400x35 of suspicious pavement in Tomahawks. After solo at 10-ish hours I was out doing T&Gs solo there and at other similar strips. Perhaps not elegantly, and certainly sucking the seat cushion up some, but I was learning.
Fast forward to 2018 as the time money curves finally intersected again and I was went back to finish the private @ FDK. 5200x100 foot runway and we flew T&Gs with an instructor but you couldn't do them, along with frankly absurd wind limitations, solo. With the time from 1984 (and having accumulated a fair amount of SA in my NFO time) I was able to finish the private in minimal flight time and 4 months over the winter but I saw students flying the same 2-3 times a week as I did as their training stretched out. Mandatory phase checks, no T&Gs, wind limits, X/C wx limits. All the adds up as a cost and time burden.
Have we simply been driven to become too risk adverse? Flying can be a little dangerous (news flash) but not as dangerous as many things. We learn to stretch our skills through doing things over and over again and making small tweaks to improve both with an instructor in the plane and without.
T&G's dangerous? If you can't touch down on a standard airport runway, apply power, select flaps up, carb heat off (if needed) rotate and fly away (and put the gear up if needed) then I think perhaps you might want to consider some more time flying with or without an instructor. Do you need to do a T&G every time? Nope, in fact I routinely stop and taxi back after an instrument approach to set things up again and reorient myself. T&Gs are simply another flight maneuver in our range of things we do as Aviators.
I'm lucky. Still working but I have the time/money to fly mostly as I'd like but many many folks, especially the young ones coming into Aviation, do not. When I read people propose updates to the PPL standards like "we should have to do spins again", "We should mandate taildragger or glider time" or "PPL students need at least 10 hours of instrument" it just adds time/expense and may not significantly add to safety but certainly will keep many people from joining our ranks.
Certainly, the NTSB could give us stats on how many mishaps occur on a T&G evolution. Would they be able to give us how many T&Gs are done safely to come up with a ratio? As a former USN safety officer I can say with authority that safety is not our primary mission. Flying as safely as we can within our, and our equipments, limitations is the goal. If we want to be as safe as possible we would sit in a lawn chair and look at the plane in the hangar.
Just my 2 cents. Sorry for the thread drift.
Land & taxi back is definitely safer especially on short runways, but stop & go is riskier than touch & go.
Well, except with those 5,000 words you failed to include the stop-n-go option which adds very little to the cost of training. Or, better yet, might actually save money if you don't have renter's insurance to cover your touch-n-go incident.
Why did he have you do a touch and go in the first place?When I learned, the rule at our school was no solo T&G's. They were regularly done with an instructor. This turned out to bite me. Unbeknownst to me, my instructor helped on the go-around by bringing the flaps to 10. When the examiner had me do a t&g, I didn't retract them which causes bizarre things in a 152 (it wants to come up on the nose wheel). I got it in the air but it was ugly. After we landed the examiner suggested go out and practice my t&g's some. I told him that students weren't allowed to do them solo. He said that's for student pilots, you've got your private now. That was the first point where I knew I had passed.
When I learned, the rule at our school was no solo T&G's. They were regularly done with an instructor. This turned out to bite me. Unbeknownst to me, my instructor helped on the go-around by bringing the flaps to 10. When the examiner had me do a t&g, I didn't retract them which causes bizarre things in a 152 (it wants to come up on the nose wheel). I got it in the air but it was ugly. After we landed the examiner suggested go out and practice my t&g's some. I told him that students weren't allowed to do them solo. He said that's for student pilots, you've got your private now. That was the first point where I knew I had passed.
...but this is the internet...
The first DPE is crocked. His "technique" is contrary to the instructions from the manufacturer and common sense. If you are rejecting the landing (or doing a T&G) you need to get to flaps 10 immediately. In fact, the reason your plane only has 30 degrees of flaps is it takes too long to retract from 40.My DPE asked me to do a soft field T&G (w/o letting nose wheel touch) and I climbed out with full flaps 172S. It was ugly and I'd never done that before. Decided to do a discontinuance. When I went back to re-test the landings, he asked for the same thing and I said I wanted to do a soft field then taxi back since he could not tell me when I could retract the flaps from 30 to 10 between touch down and lift off. He had previously told me I could never ever touch the flaps lever on the runway (only after reaching taxi way). Well he ended up failing me on landings when my short field ended with a wing lift after touchdown. Two crosswind CFI lessons later, I re-re-tested with another DPE and it was like clockwork. I learned alot from that experience, and it only cost me an additional 0.4 AMU (aviation monetary unit).
Not a CFI but I wouldn't hesitate to incorporate T&G's in training. If a pilot is proficient then there isn't anything inherently dangerous about T&G's. I watched Alaskan perform several T&G's in MD-80's at KBOI in the early 90's. Full stop landings make sense for tailwheels just because the hard part starts on rollout. If someone is worried about reconfiguration for T/O, what are they going to do if they have to go around on short final or worse after touchdown?
I don't do T&G's in my complex aircraft. A lot to do quickly to reconfigure the aircraft from landing to taking off, and if not done right the aircraft undergoes the mother of all pitch up motions that can be difficult to control, especially while swinging the Johnson bar to retract the gear. [...]
Frankly, reading this gives me the impression that you definitely need to practice t&g. What if you have to go around after touching down? Then you’re faced with a high stress situation and a maneuver you are not comfortable with!
I also don’t see why there should be more going on in our Mooneys than is a typical trainer during the actual t&g!? The prop stays full forward and you can take your time to bring the gear back up. Adjusting the trim is therefore the only thing that needs immediate adjusting, but this is also the case in a Piper Cherokee or a Cessna 172.
Sounds like you learned that FAA designee letters don’t necessarily correlate to knowledge or proficiency.My DPE asked me to do a soft field T&G (w/o letting nose wheel touch) and I climbed out with full flaps 172S. It was ugly and I'd never done that before. Decided to do a discontinuance. When I went back to re-test the landings, he asked for the same thing and I said I wanted to do a soft field then taxi back since he could not tell me when I could retract the flaps from 30 to 10 between touch down and lift off. He had previously told me I could never ever touch the flaps lever on the runway (only after reaching taxi way). Well he ended up failing me on landings when my short field ended with a wing lift after touchdown. Two crosswind CFI lessons later, I re-re-tested with another DPE and it was like clockwork. I learned alot from that experience, and it only cost me an additional 0.4 AMU (aviation monetary unit).
And, you know, I'm quite capable of, and proficient at, going around (and they are indeed important to practice) but...if my wheels are on the ground and a deer runs out in front on me, I'm confident that I'd decide that what is about to happen is between that deer and my insurance company. I love my plane but, if my ass isn't on the line, there are many more out there...
Notwithstanding 3-pt landings where you land with a minimum airspeed and would need to transition from a tail low to a tail high position for takeoff, it is actually easier and makes more sense to do a touch-and-go wheel-landing in a tailwheel.
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and
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Are you referring to short runways only? (hint, I hope so!)
I really can't see a situation where I'm wheels down and rolling and I need to put in the power. [...]
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This is outright nonsense. In my Cherokee you just put in the power and go. I do that in the Mooney and I'm courting a departure stall. I HAVE to swing the bar as soon as practicable, otherwise the forces involved quickly become overwhelming as the aircraft accelerates. So I'm trying to keep the nose down while doing that, fine. Add one more distraction into the mix, perhaps what caused me to bolt in the first place, and it gets honestly quite dangerous. Moreover, I have to pull out the flaps and re-trim the aircraft, things I never had to do in a trainer. [...]
Because one upon a time I took off with the aircraft configured for landing. After stowing the gear I looked up and was going 60 mph. The dirty stall speed in my Mooney is 57.Not sure why you think you would risk a departure stall!?
Dangerous for some. Not for others. There is nothing special about the Mooney that makes it this impossible life-threatening task that you make it out to be. That being said...
Insert obligatory Clint Eastwood quote here.
I really can't see a situation where I'm wheels down and rolling and I need to put in the power. Perhaps landing in the evening at a rural airstrip where fauna could come in from the surroundings, but that really isn't my mission. If I've done my due diligence in the landing pattern I've looked over the landing surface and its safe to land. Moreover, there are lots of situations where staying on the ground could result in a pranged airplane, but trying to take off again could be far worse. I recall a TBM (you know the "M" stands for Mooney, right?) that had a prop strike after a bounce. He put the power in to do the go-around and died. Putting the power in can make an already bad situation that much dangerous. While I'm always prepared for a go around on short final, I prefer to focus my efforts on placing the airplane where I want it in the minimum distance.
This is outright nonsense. In my Cherokee you just put in the power and go. I do that in the Mooney and I'm courting a departure stall. I HAVE to swing the bar as soon as practicable, otherwise the forces involved quickly become overwhelming as the aircraft accelerates. So I'm trying to keep the nose down while doing that, fine. Add one more distraction into the mix, perhaps what caused me to bolt in the first place, and it gets honestly quite dangerous. Moreover, I have to pull out the flaps and re-trim the aircraft, things I never had to do in a trainer. Oh yeah, they have trim too, but aren't anywhere near as sensitive to it. So to do the T&G i have to re-trim and suck up the flaps. While rolling at relatively high energy on the ground. Sounds like a darn good way to break something.
And why do it? To add a skill that you aren't ever going to use if you do your due diligence? T&Gs don't teach you how to do go arounds, they teach you to do T&Gs. People have geared up airplanes doing T&Gs. People have died too.
I've gone around after balked landings, thankfully not often. Still, it can get the best of us. Now I get to tell you how not putting the power in saved my life. I was flying my Mooney into a small(ish) airstrip for its annual inspection. That last time I flew into this airstrip it was 2300 feet, so that's what I thought I had to land. It was actually longer (about 3k feet), but prior experience trumped everything. Why check the length of a runway I've been to? Who lengthens runways? These guys did.I did a go around after landing a couple months ago.
So you ****ed up. I get it. Been there done that and have the t shirt. BTW the touch and go was not your error.Because one upon a time I took off with the aircraft configured for landing. After stowing the gear I looked up and was going 60 mph. The dirty stall speed in my Mooney is 57.
I've gone around after balked landings, thankfully not often. Still, it can get the best of us. Now I get to tell you how not putting the power in saved my life. I was flying my Mooney into a small(ish) airstrip for its annual inspection. That last time I flew into this airstrip it was 2300 feet, so that's what I thought I had to land. It was actually longer (about 3k feet), but prior experience trumped everything. Why check the length of a runway I've been to? Who lengthens runways? These guys did.
Coming in over the trees I pulled all the power and put it in a forward slip. Straightened out over the runway, flared, and BLAM!, hardest bounce I've ever seen. Unbeknownst to me I'd struck the prop in that bounce. Normally, I'd just put in the power and fly out of a bounce like that. But I was relatively new to the Mooney, didn't feel confident in my abilities with it, and had already decided that once the wheels hit the ground they were staying there. That decision saved my life that day.
Had I put in the power I would have been putting it into an asymmetrically bend prop and an engine with a busted crank shaft. There were tall trees just off the end of that runway, I doubt things would have ended very well. As it was I bounced down the runway, taxied back, saw what I'd done and just about gave up flying.
Yeah, if a landing goes that badly I just put in the power and go. Yeah, she pitches up hard. Yeah, I have to use the Mooney dip to seat the gear. Yeah, its eventful. And I can do all that without repeated T&G's. But sometimes it can be better to just ride it out.
I spent a fair amount of time afterwards with a CFI. I no longer have the "if the wheels touch down they stay down" dictum, but I'm not spring loaded for the T&G like some folks here. Like I said, there are situations where it's best to ride it out. I seem to be a good enough pilot that I can fly out of a balked landing without doing repeated T&G's. I wish I would have been a good enough pilot to avoid that prop strike. Came perilously close to ending my flying for good.I've said this before, I'll say it again. I've promised myself that if I feel uncomfortable in any aspect of my flying, I will get a CFI and do that which makes me uncomfortable until I know I'm proficient at it. We shouldn't be afraid of these machines.