Bumps and runs

[LukeBrown66]

just watching some of the majestic FRA footage and they are at Luke.

So many guys doing bump and runs, you know appearing to land then powering up and leaving, what is the point of this? is it just training to get approach right, trying various settings? or just that they mess up so often!!

[Tony1963]

Training, practice.

[MarkwG]

LukeBrown66 said:

just watching some of the majestic FRA footage and they are at Luke.

So many guys doing bump and runs, you know appearing to land then powering up and leaving, what is the point of this? is it just training to get approach right, trying various settings? or just that they mess up so often!!

I believe "bump & runs" is a golf term, although I don't play golf. I guess you're thinking of "touch & go", if so this may help - https://www.skybrary.aero/articles/touch-and-go#:~...

[dr_gn]

MarkwG said:

LukeBrown66 said:

just watching some of the majestic FRA footage and they are at Luke.

So many guys doing bump and runs, you know appearing to land then powering up and leaving, what is the point of this? is it just training to get approach right, trying various settings? or just that they mess up so often!!

I believe "bump & runs" is a golf term, although I don't play golf. I guess you're thinking of "touch & go", if so this may help - https://www.skybrary.aero/articles/touch-and-go#:~...

Circuits and bumps?

[MarkwG]

dr_gn said:

MarkwG said:

LukeBrown66 said:

just watching some of the majestic FRA footage and they are at Luke.

So many guys doing bump and runs, you know appearing to land then powering up and leaving, what is the point of this? is it just training to get approach right, trying various settings? or just that they mess up so often!!

I believe "bump & runs" is a golf term, although I don't play golf. I guess you're thinking of "touch & go", if so this may help - https://www.skybrary.aero/articles/touch-and-go#:~...

Circuits and bumps?

That's quite an old term, dates back to WW2, & rarely used by anyone in the aviation business these days, in my experience. Circuit/s has a specific meaning, i.e. an aircraft doing touch & goes, will be flying in the circuit, or flying circuits.

[AndrewGP]

LukeBrown66 said:

just watching some of the majestic FRA footage and they are at Luke.

So many guys doing bump and runs, you know appearing to land then powering up and leaving, what is the point of this? is it just training to get approach right, trying various settings? or just that they mess up so often!!

If you’re training for the approaches only you can just go around at 50’ or 100’, whereas ‘touch and go’s’ are specifically done to practice the flare and landing itself and are especially useful to practice crosswind landings. Equally, on our aircraft we have specific disciplines (such as night landings on NIght Vision Goggles), that in order to qualify in, you need a certain amount of landings and this is the most time efficient way of completing this.

As an aside a ‘bump and go’ is different to a ‘touch and go’. The former is where only the main wheels will touch before power is applied and the aircraft gets airborne again. Flaps are retracted at 50ft by one stage and then a standard overshoot profile flown. The latter is a where the aircraft will roll down the runway while the flaps are retracted to a position suitable to take off and then power is applied to take off. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

One of the disadvantages of touch and go’s is emergency handling, ie what do you do if you get an engine failure or fire during a touch and go? It needs thinking about and briefing as you may not have enough room to stop before the end of the runway so in most cases the pilots are ‘go minded’ and will take the vast majority of problems airborne and sort it out from there. This is why a ‘bump and go’ may be more appropriate the a ‘touch and go’.

[dr_gn]

MarkwG said:

dr_gn said:

MarkwG said:

LukeBrown66 said:

just watching some of the majestic FRA footage and they are at Luke.

So many guys doing bump and runs, you know appearing to land then powering up and leaving, what is the point of this? is it just training to get approach right, trying various settings? or just that they mess up so often!!

I believe "bump & runs" is a golf term, although I don't play golf. I guess you're thinking of "touch & go", if so this may help - https://www.skybrary.aero/articles/touch-and-go#:~...

Circuits and bumps?

That's quite an old term, dates back to WW2, & rarely used by anyone in the aviation business these days, in my experience. Circuit/s has a specific meaning, i.e. an aircraft doing touch & goes, will be flying in the circuit, or flying circuits.

It was the name of a series of modelling books by Airfix - that's the only place I'd seen it, but assumed what the meaning was.

[MarkwG]

dr_gn said:

MarkwG said:

dr_gn said:

MarkwG said:

LukeBrown66 said:

just watching some of the majestic FRA footage and they are at Luke.

So many guys doing bump and runs, you know appearing to land then powering up and leaving, what is the point of this? is it just training to get approach right, trying various settings? or just that they mess up so often!!

I believe "bump & runs" is a golf term, although I don't play golf. I guess you're thinking of "touch & go", if so this may help - https://www.skybrary.aero/articles/touch-and-go#:~...

Circuits and bumps?

That's quite an old term, dates back to WW2, & rarely used by anyone in the aviation business these days, in my experience. Circuit/s has a specific meaning, i.e. an aircraft doing touch & goes, will be flying in the circuit, or flying circuits.

It was the name of a series of modelling books by Airfix - that's the only place I'd seen it, but assumed what the meaning was.

That's probably where I saw it, too.

[LukeBrown66]

It is just what i used to call it when I was a kid watching at Waddo, Cottesmore or the like.

Seems an odd waste, but there must be a reason for it obviously, and yes there are numerous versions.

the approach then blast away while raising gear, the almost landing then blast away and the main gear touch and go.

it is a bit like when planes come in, they often flyby at high altitude to get a look then circle back with gear down to land, these little habits you witness and expect after time.

the one that always gets me is running up engines before take off and then you can almost at times hear the disappointment in the cameraman when reheat is not engaged!!

[GliderRider]

When you take off, you go from the hard stuff into the soft stuff. When landing, its the other way round, so it pays to get good at it.
When I worked in Basingstoke, I was able to take a two hour lunch break and go to Popham for circuits and bumps* in a Cessna 152. As the runway that is parallel to the road has an angled approach to avoid the petrol station, and an angled climb out to miss the water tower, it was quite a knack to get it right.

• My dad learned in a Tiger Moth in the late 1940s and he always called it circuits and bumps.