"Kevin Dunlevy" wrote in message
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[...]
Should I force myself to always do full stop taxi backs, even thought
other
pilots and tower personnel seem to prefer that I do touch and goes?

IMHO, it depends on what you want to practice.

I am of the opinion that early in primary training, touch & go's are
counter-productive. Much better to stop, get off the runway, and have the
instructor debrief the circuit. As others have pointed out, touch & go's
don't allow you to practice the full start to finish of a takeoff, circuit,
and landing.

On the other hand, eventually one is actually pretty decent at landing, and
may want to practice variations on the theme. No-flap approaches, short
approaches, etc. In this situation, the interesting part is the stuff that
happens while you're in the air, and touch & go's allow you to maximize the
time spend in the air.

I also find touch & go's useful for brushing some of the rust off, as the
skill that fades earliest for me is the smooth and precise use of the flight
controls; a full-stop landing won't really help me much in that regard, but
getting a high ratio of air-to-ground time in does. Touch & go's are just
one part of a whole slew of exercises one can do to remind oneself how to
control the airplane.

As in nearly everything, there's a time and place for everything. Touch &
go's aren't inherently bad, but there certainly are situations in which they
aren't useful, or may actually reduce the usefulness of the training. Just
keep in mind what your goal is, and how best to achieve it, and that will
guide you with respect to when a touch & go is useful or not.

Pete