Pattern Work: Touch-and-goes for increased proficiency
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Pattern Work: Touch-and-goes for increased proficiency
In my days as an instructor I spent a lot of time in the traffic pattern doing dozens of touch-and-goes. Today, I still feel like this is one of the best places to refine our craft and maintain proficiency – notice I didn’t say currency, but that’s a topic for another day.
Why?
Once you have the basics down, the traffic pattern brings everything together. It’s a profusion of maneuvers all executed with a an element of time compression and relative to a fixed spot on the ground.
Let’s break it down
- On takeoff you are controlling the aircraft by pitch attitude and that continues as you maintain your climb airspeed. At the same time you are tracking the centerline of the runway, correcting for wind – ground reference maneuvering.
- Your crosswind legs begins with a coordinated turn with airspeed still in control with the rollout putting you on a track that is perpendicular to the upwind leg you just flew.
- Downwind brings about another smooth turn and a level-off at your pattern altitude. Again your ground track must be precisely maintained. You’ll be accelerating at this point so power begins to come back as you maintain altitude simultaneously. Then the checklist comes out. A downwind radio call would be appropriate, if at an uncontrolled field. You can see there’s a lot going on.
- Abeam the numbers power is reduced, flaps are applied at the appropriate speeds and you commence a coordinated turn to base as you decelerate. Again maintaining a track over the ground to put you in the best position on final.
- Final approach is all about fine-turning. Airspeed control is critical as well as precise ground track on the extended centerline of the runway. You will have to maintain your vertical path by either power or slipping.
- The flare. This is the part everyone focuses on and it’s really just the culmination of everything up to this point. But it does take some muscle memory to do well since you are have to take in a great deal of external inputs and process them quickly to get the correct outcome. Generally, this is within the first 500′ of the runway, at stall inches from the surface, and tracking straight.
If you are doing a touch-and-go, that means you are still focused and you have to keep flying the airplane. The flaps have to be retracted as you maintain centerline. There is some controversy around touch-and-goes and some are preaching that it’s too risky and everyone should do a full-stop. To me, it depends. There are too many variables to say definitively you need to stop each time. There are times that I feel that is appropriate and other times that I feel a touch-and-go can be executed without significant risk – you have to the arbitrator of that decision, unless you are a student and then it may be the school or instructor’s call. (related avweb article)
So you can see than in about :06 minutes you can complete most of the elements that are necessary to safely fly the airplane. Doing an hour of these will not only make you more proficient it will increase your confidence as well.
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And while you’re at it: make sure you get in some soft/short field practice as well as some simulated engine outs on downwind (for those who carry power in the pattern on base/final)!
I agree with you on T&Gs. I think, for the experienced pilot, they hold a lot of value. I’m not sure about the value for novices, however. Years ago, I turned in the keys to a rental C-150 and they were handed over to a solo student who proceeded to do T&Gs. For whatever reason, he went off the side of the runway while rolling-out and hit one of the runway signs. Nose gear snapped off, the airplane flipped over onto its back, and was a total loss. The student, fortunately, was ok. After that incident, the flight school decided that, perhaps for a novice, there might be too much going on during roll out and that full stop (or stop and go, if able) landings were probably more appropriate for the less experienced students. I think they had a good point.
Christine,
Yes, there does seem to be some data to support not doing it. Knowing your limits or that of your students is key. I hope you made it out to fly today – beautiful weather in the Cbus.
Regards,
Brent
Interesting that you mention “muscle memory” for the last seconds of flare and landing. One of my, if not my biggest, hitches in flying is exactly that maneuver, especially in a crosswind. And I think I get myself all screwed up in my head precisely because there is too much going on in those seconds to really process intellectually. As a sort of left-brain, cerebral guy, I want to think out things step by step ahead of the game, and I never really thought much about why that doesn’t work here. But you are right, certain parts of flying are more purely motor skill, where the cerebral cortex takes a back seat. I suppose it’s why no one learned how to land a plane by studying it in a book, and as you say, the only real way to get or stay proficient is to just bang out seven or eight of these in an hour at the local field.
Charley,
Good words. Especially the part about learning from a book – when it comes to landings, that’s spot on.
Brent
This is so true. My joke is I fly like I originally trained more than 20 years ago. But I fly less than a couple dozen hours a year on average. So going out and doing touch and goes is a great way to stay connected with what are statistically the most dangerous parts of flight. Plus get a day with a good crosswind, and after 5 or so I’m spent. Flying more frequently, but for less time is also a way to stay current and on a budget. My example is instead of once a month 2 hour session in which you go somewhere an hour away, have a cup of coffee and come back. Split it into four .5 sessions. Takeoff, get to the practice area, one or two coordination exercises, a stall, throw in an abnormal or emergency procedure, return to the airport for a few touch and goes and you have had a fun day of flying, and you get to do it again next weekend!
Mike,
That’s an excellent approach; stay current and not break the bank. That’s exactly what I do, except for my pilgrimage to OSH. Most of my flights are under an hour.
Brent
Whoops I meant proficient, not current. Yes different subject
don’t like touch and goes. Never did. I think it is ’cause I am afraid of running off of the runway. I practice balked landings. Unlike students, my flying is not regulated by a clock, so when I practice takeoffs and landings, they are always full stop and taxi back for takeoff.
Glenn,
Thanks for your input! Always good to hear how people do it in the wild!
Brent