What's the point of an airplane doing a touch and go landing?

Question

What's the point of an airplane doing a touch and go landing?

and also

Why do the window shades have to be up on take off and landing?

Cheers!

Answer 1

Two reasons.

One is to practice landings, the touch and go maneuvers allows many landings to be practiced in a short time. Another is to test the runway.

As for the window shades question, its for safety reasons. In case there is some incident, with the shades open  you can better asses the situation outside.

Answer 2

There are many reasons to do a touch and go. The primary one is practise. Landing is hard, easily the hardest part of flying outside of some aerobatics. If you don't do it often, you do get rusty at it.

Other reasons might be overshooting the runway, always safer to punch in the power and fly around for another try. Bad weather. Or dangers present on the airstrip itself.

The window shades don't strictly have to be up or down, though it's a safety thing. If something happens, you, as the passenger, will really have a vested interest in knowing where the safest exit point is along with the orientation of the aircraft in the event of an accident.

Answer 3

First, it is not for the airplane but practice for the learning pilot so he will be able to better control the airplane in he two most critical phases of flying.  Takeoff and landing.  Second - Never know the shades had to be up on takeoff and landing.  Lots of people are asleep and don't raise the shades.

Answer 4

Another reason that touch and go is preferred to full stops and take offs is brake wear/heating. Large aircraft introduce large amounts of heat in a landing. After a couple of them it takes time for the brakes to cool down again. There is more training value in going through full stop landings and taxying back to take off, but it costs more.

Answer 5

I've also seen pilots use touch-and-gos to "get current" before taking on passengers.  In order to act as pilot in command with passengers aboard you must have made 3 landings in the previous 90 days.

I've known guys that have brought their families to the airport.  Gone up and done their 3 landings, and then load everyone on board to go on vacation.

Answer 6

Of course practice, but in the Navy, touch and go's are critical to learn. There is a good chance that upon making a carrier landing the arrestor hook won't catch and you must immediately power up and take back off the deck. Any other foul deck situation would call for a touch and go if the pilot actually touches down as well.

Answer 7

gain some experience  on approaches and landings.

The shades should be up, because if there is a problem and the plane crashes, it will help the rescue people see if there are people inside and it will provide more light to help people leave the aircraft, if there is smoke or fire.

good luck

Answer 8

Touch and go landings are practice for the pilot.  It is cheaper than bringing the plane to a complete stop and then taking back off.

If you were on a commercial airliner flight that "touched down" and then took back off, that's not a touch and go, that's an aborted landing because of a problem like bad winds, ice on runway and couldn't stop, weather conditions like wind shear, etc. .  An airliner will never do this with passengers on board unless there is a serious threat to the safety of the landing.

Answer 9

Practice

So the firemen can see your body.

Answer 10

touch and go landings are often practised by the RAF. The most difficult part of flying is take off and landings and this allows them to get a lot of practice in a short time.

The window shades should be up in order to improve visibility both within the cabin and from outside if there is a crash or evacuation situation.

Answer 11

A touch and go landing is just a way for the pilot to practice landing. The difficult part of landing is getting your approach angle correct, and keeping the runway lined up if there is a crosswind. After the pilot touches the runway, he just goes back up and does it all over again. Just practice.

As for the window shades, one main reason is for motion sickness. Most people experience motion sickness when they feel like they are moving, but can't see anything around them moving. When in an airplane, it is fairly smooth except for accelerating and climbing while taking off, and descending and stopping while landing. The windows need to be open during those times so that people can see outside and see movement.

The secondary reason is for safety. You can see what is happening outside. In in a crash situation all you really care about is the nearest exit.