Flight School: The Touch-and-Go

Pia Bergqvist

Friday, August 19, 2011 at 07:30 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The article presents two contrasting viewpoints on the effectiveness and safety of touch-and-go landings during flight training for new students.
One instructor argues against touch-and-goes for new students, emphasizing that each takeoff and landing should be treated as a distinct, complete event with full checklists and post-landing debriefs to ensure safety and proper procedure.
The other instructor advocates for touch-and-goes as a valuable and efficient method to gain more repetitions of approach, landing, and flare techniques, and to practice critical go-around skills.
Both perspectives highlight the importance of instructor judgment and specific training contexts (like student proficiency or runway conditions) when deciding whether to incorporate touch-and-goes.

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Are touch-and-goes a good idea during flight training?

William F. Ball_ has been an active flight instructor for 30 years and a designated pilot examiner (DPE) for 21 years. He conducts testing and certification activities for all FAA certificates and ratings. He has given more than 8,000 hours of flight instruction and is currently an instructor for SimCom, teaching in the Cessna Citation CE-500 and CE-525 jet programs. He says:_