It’s always been curious to me how the lion’s share of GA training emphasizes landings over takeoffs. Smoothly returning to Earth certainly requires some skill and practice, and often serves as a common yardstick for non-pilots of how good the pilot is. But takeoffs also require skill and practice, and come with some different challenges.
For example, when landing, we’re decelerating, not speeding down a runway trying to get enough speed to become airborne. On landing, we already know the airplane will fly; we’re at the end of a flight. During a takeoff, there always will be a non-zero chance the airplane won’t fly for some reason, leaving you accelerating toward the end of the runway as you try to, say, remove the gust lock, correctly adjust the pitch trim or extend the takeoff flaps you forgot. Put another way, the takeoff can offer less room for error than the landing.
