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Mooney Touch and Goes  

46 members have voted

  1. 1. Why do you (or do not) do touch and goes in your Mooney?

    • I do touch and goes because they're fun.
      1
    • I do touch and goes to save time while practicing landings.
      4
    • I do touch and goes to practice basic aircraft control and keep my general skill level high.
      24
    • I do NOT do touch and goes in my Mooney because they are dangerous.
      1
    • I do NOT do touch and goes in my Mooney because I'm not comfortable with them yet (but might in the future).
      0
    • I do NOT do touch and goes in my Mooney because the additional risk factor doesn't justify them to me.
      9
    • I do NOT do touch and goes in my Mooney for other reasons not listed here.
      7


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Posted

I do them.  

I create and maintain the muscle memory of what is needed in a go-round and it is very close to a touch-and-go.  For me, the most significant difference between a go-round and a touch-and-go is the DH/DA.  

Rejecting an instrument approach after the FAF because DH/DA is reached and the runway environment has not been acquired visually, or for some other reason, is one scenario.  

Putting it down on the runway to stable roll out and then immediately configuring to T/O because the aircraft is already rolling is the other scenario.

There are lots of ways to make a touch-and-go safe.  

  • Set T/O flaps (as in an instrument approach) or no flaps for the approach.  Either condition does not require touching the flap switch until after reaching 1000' AGL (or not at all in the case of a no-flap landing).  [We practice no flap take offs and landings for the Mooney Caravan.].  
  • 3 GUMPS checks before crossing the threshold.
  • Know the "must be airborne by" point on that runway.  Do not attempt them on unfamiliar runways.
  • Do not attempt them on runways less than twice your minimum comfortable landing (and T/O) length criteria.  For me that is 2500' (normally) unless something has allowed me to become familiar with a runway less than that.  So, for me, twice 2500' is 5000'.  My home drome is 3300' and I will do that one very, very rarely.  Too much traffic and too many students in the circuit ("pattern" for y'all).  The one I normally use is 6000' long and 5 nm away (Gatineau Executive Airport - CYND).  

When I get home from an overseas deployment, the second back-in-the-saddle training includes three non-precision and one precision approach.  That involves a possible total of five runways (2 at 4000', one at 5000', one at 8000' and one at 10,000') and I have done touch-and-goes on all of them.  I can complete two such sets of approaches in a day fairly easily and get my 6-6-6 in for IFR currency.

However, the first flying I do after I get back home is 6 or 7 touch-and-goes at Gatineau.  Confirms the cockpit flows and re-animates the muscle memory that will save my life in a bad situation.  Wax on, wax off. My personal criteria and more than 800 hours on my own Mooney makes them both manageable and safe.

Doing them is a safety issue.  

 

  • Like 4
Posted

Not in my Ovation. Would need a ton of runway to be safe and the retrim and reconfigure takes a bit. No need to do them. If the runway is long enough I'll do a stop and go.


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Posted
Not in my Ovation. Would need a ton of runway to be safe and the retrim and reconfigure takes a bit.

Assuming you use partial flaps on landing, prop,mixture fully forward, all you need to do is throttle forward, retrim as required?
Posted
22 minutes ago, teejayevans said:


Assuming you use partial flaps on landing, prop,mixture fully forward, all you need to do is throttle forward, retrim as required?

On a mid body it's a lot of trim. The lb might be even more.

Posted

And a ton of power...

it is not a requirement to go full throttle instantly.  Some time, is allowed.  The go around is not an emergency. It is a well thought out and executed maneuver...

If it becomes an emergency, go full power and be ready for the arm work out.  The trim button gets some stress during this as well... it is hard to tell if the button is engaged while pushing with one's left hand...

PP thoughts only, not a CFI...

Best regards,

-a-

  • Like 1
Posted
18 minutes ago, carusoam said:

And a ton of power...

it is not a requirement to go full throttle instantly.  Some time, is allowed.  The go around is not an emergency. It is a well thought out and executed maneuver...

If it becomes an emergency, go full power and be ready for the arm work out.  The trim button gets some stress during this as well... it is hard to tell if the button is engaged while pushing with one's left hand...

PP thoughts only, not a CFI...

Best regards,

-a-

And don't worry about the muscles in that one leg. They will stop cramping in a while....

  • Like 1
Posted

If there is one thing to get from TT...  

How to handle the forces of the go around....  

full flaps, full power, full up trim, full brain load, full arm load...

Get it sorted, quickly... before you run out of time, strength, or cognition... :)

Even a C is going to climb well with the gear stowed, and flaps and trim properly configured...

Best regards,

-a-

Posted

Power?

Though it's all jets/turbo props now, back in the propeller day, with very little experience/time in model, students were sent out solo to practice touch and goes in the Navy's T-28B's and C's.  As the Navy was phasing out the T-34B, the T-28 was the first aircraft flown by many students (as I recall, solo was after less than 20 hours total flight time).

If brand new student pilots could handle touch and goes in a T-28, certainly, we can all aspire to the skill and familiarity to do them in our Mooneys.  However, if you're not comfortable, don't do them.

 

Thumbnail description:

THE USN PURCHASED THE 1425 HP B AND C (TAILHOOK) MODELS 1954-56. THE HIGHER POWER TOTALLY TRANSFORMED THIS AIRCRAFT INTO A STELLAR PERFORMER!

IT IS A COMPLEX AIRCRAFT WITH FOUR ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS, DUAL POWER INVERTERS WITH AC INSTRUMENTS, HYDRAULIC-POWERED CANOPY, SPEED BRAKE, FLAPS AND GEAR. PNEUMATIC CANOPY BACK-UP SYSTEM. DUAL TANK OXYGEN SYSTEM GOOD FOR 12 HOURS AT ALTITUDE, UP TO 39,000 FEET.  (Two speed speed supercharger).

 

  • Like 1
Posted
1 minute ago, peevee said:

Here we go again. If they can do it in the space shuttle you can do it in a Mooney!!

Uh...we're talking about low-time student pilots....not astronauts.  For some of the students, the first time they'd ever been in an aircraft was the commercial flight down to Pensacola.....20 hours later, they were doing solo touch and goes.  Flying is demanding; touch and goes require "some skill", but we certainly aren't talking brain surgery.

Posted
2 hours ago, Oldguy said:

And don't worry about the muscles in that one leg. They will stop cramping in a while....

Strange that with 400HP available I don't have Popeye legs or arms.

Clarence

Posted
Just now, M20Doc said:

Strange that with 400HP available I don't have Popeye legs or arms.

Clarence

That's because all the gas sucked out of one tank balances it out

  • Like 1

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