New Smyrna Beach Airport Changes

Touch and Go:

Tough and Go operations are landings without making a full stop.  Aircraft touch down and immediately take off again.  One purpose is to save both time and fuel in training new pilots.  Touch and Go operations are a major annoyance for many nearby residents and account for the majority of our airport activity.  Along with weather and other flights, they cause wear and tear on our runways.  But because there are no landing fees, flight schools pay nothing for these operations.

Our Airport's standard reply to complaints about touch and go operations is as follows.  Flight activity cannot be regulated because the Airport accepts FAA grant money.  To obtain FAA grant money, the City must comply with certain FAA grant assurances including making the airport available for public use "without unjust discrimination."

Under the belief that the FAA would not allow touch and go regulations the New Smyrna Beach City Commission (February 28, 2006) approved a voluntary restriction on touch and go landings "in an effort to be a good neighbor to the residents".

Click here to view the Voluntary Touch & Go Restrictions.

As most of us know, the Voluntary Restrictions are flagrantly ignored by the flight schools.

But it appears that some touch and go operations can be enforced:

At Montgomery Field Airport in San Diego (which also accepts FAA grant money), Touch and Go operations are currently PROHIBITED from 11:00 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. On August 7, 1987, the San Diego City Attorney rendered a Memorandum of Law which read "We therefore conclude that the flight regulation prohibiting a "touch and go" operation is lawful and would be defensible in the event of litigation."

Click here to view the Memorandum.  The quoted section is in the 3rd paragraph from the end.

Embry-Riddle, Epic Aviation, Phoenix East Aviation and others currently flagrantly disregard the existing Voluntary Touch and Go Restrictions.  Good neighbors?  Nope!  The preponderance of New Smyrna Beach Airport activities are training flights and they are "Touch and Go!"

Touch and Go operations are also controversial:

The following three quotes are from Thomas P. Turner in his article "The Rewards and the Risks: Teaching Touch and Goes," October 2002 AOPO Flight Training.  (Click here for the full article.)

"A student flying touch and goes might log seven or eight takeoffs and landings in an hour-long session, as opposed to only five or six if making full-stop landings and taxiing back."

"The risks of touch and goes are loss of control due to excessive pilot workload and, in retractable-gear airplanes, inadvertent gear retractions on the ground."

"Touch and goes are more risky than full stops.  In some cases you may not want to assume the risk -- in those instances, simply don't try to fly, or to teach, touch and goes."

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPO) Air Safety Foundation requested opinions from the flight instructor community (CFIs) on the above article.  These were summarized by Mike Collins in his article "Touching Base: Instructors weigh in on touch and goes."  The following two quotes are from that article.  (Click here for the full article.)

"Fifteen percent of CFIs responding are opposed to touch-and-go landings under any circumstances.  Thirty percent heartily endorse the concept.  And a whopping 55 percent of you report that you utilize touch and goes selectively, depending on the situation."

"'I taught for more than 8,000 hours before I decided this maneuver has no place in primary training or almost any other flight training environment,' said Kirby Ortega."