Touch and goes???

[SoCalCAPOfficer]

^ Yep, too much wear and tear.  It's amazing how careful we are when it's our own personal aircraft.     :angel:

I have done hundreds of touch and goes with no problems.  I fail to see how it causes more wear and tear on an airplane that is already moving.  I would think it would cause more wear and tear to taxi back and start the run from a dead start.  The engine would be running longer during the taxi and longer during the takeoff at high rpm.

Now touch and goes in a retractable is a different matter, since there is more chance of a mistake, so taxi back makes sense and is safer.

T&Gs are hard on the engine; especially TC and Larger normaly aspirated piston engines.  Over time (I've been told over and over) engine life is shortened due to repititive cooling and heating of Cylinders and Pistons.   Touch and goes are important for proficiency however, I do them in a rented aircraft.

As far as cooling and heating go, it isnt whether the takeoff is a touch and go, or a taxiback and a takeoff that would matter.  It is the number of such takeoffs and landings done in the traffic pattern in a short period of time that causes the wear. 

I believe there is more time for cooling to take place during a taxi back than a touch and go.  I could be wrong, but it just makes sense to me that the longer time the engine is at idle or close to it, the more it will cool and then have a greater differential to come up to temp during takeoff.

[FW]

Continued relatively quick repetitions of idle... full; idle... full power aren't good for long engine life.  It isn't dangerous, just expensive.    The problem with this cycle is quick or shock cooling/heating of the engine during the T&G procedure.  In a TC engine, this can cause some drastic damage.  In a large, say IO 540, the quick changes in temps can cause metal fatigue quicker than nice long changes in temps like during taxi after landing or before TO.   It's one of the reasons why you want to keep a TC engine running  for a while before shut down.  This is what I learned however, YMMV.

[Frenchie]

Any argument against touch-n-goes based on engine heating and cooling is pretty weak.  The evidence of shock cooling harming an engine is pretty much non-existent and many engine experts who actually go by evidence consider shock cooling damage a myth.

Touch-n-goes refresh landing skills and to some extent go around skills, both of which are invaluable.