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2 Answers

Is a Touch & Go a ‘Landing’?

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FAA Regulations

61.65(d)(1) requires 50-hrs. "cross country flight time" for Instrument rating applicants.

61.1(b)(ii)(B) defines cross-country as "a point of landing... more than 50-nm...", etc.

I have a student that has logged some flights to airports > 50-nm as "touch & go" (he wrote that already in the remarks of the flight in his logbook).  So, what is a 'landing'?

Interestingly, AIM 4-3-12, in discussing Low Approaches (although not related to this issue), they use the phrase "Instead of landing or making a touch and go, a pilot may make low approach...", etc.  Why does the AIM discern between landing/T&G if they're the same. (Also, you generally need Tower to clear you for a landing or a touch & go; unless you get the option, they're not the same...)

Am I making too much of this (always possible)? Just don't want any red-flags for the DPE on his check ride. Please cite the source of any FAA reg or writings to support your position; I'm not taking a poll to see "what CFI's do"; I'm looking for some regulatory guidance on this.

Thank you.

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2 Answers



  1. Kris Kortokrax on Feb 09, 2014

    Yes, you are probably making too much of it.

    In 61.57 (a), there is a requirement for three takeoffs and landings in the last 90 days. They go on to require that for tailwheel airplanes, the landings must be made to a full stop. This leads me to believe that a touch and go landing is a landing, as it counts for currency.

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  2. Mark Kolber on Feb 09, 2014

    Yep, you are making too much of it. It’s not “regulatory guidance” (you won’t find “touch and go” anywhere in the FAR). It’s just accounting for different types of maneuvers.

    FAA guidance material uses the phrase because the maneuver exists.

    ATC uses it because their job is sequencing traffic for the runway. Since full stop landings, stop and goes, touch and goes, and low passes all use different amounts of time, it;’s something ATC wants to account for.

    One of my favorite admonitions when looking at the regs: Think for a moment rather than assuming complexity that may not exist.

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