You should be able to recognize from the feel that the flaps have not
retracted and fly out of it. The way to be sure of doing both of these
things is to practice to learn how the plane feels and how to handle it.

Intentional touch and gos should be done with enough runway that you can put
the flap lever up, take a look, and pull power to abort if they don't move.
Aborting a landing a the last second is also a good thing to practice.

--

Roger Long



"AJW" wrote in message
...

One of the more experienced pilots in our club scared himself climbing
out
of a touch and go during which he didn't notice that the flaps had frozen
at
20 degrees on our 172.

I've been investigating the flap system on Cessna's and am impressed how
easily a bit of fluff or corrosion in just one switch can let the flaps
go
down but then fail to retract.

This leaves me convinced that CFI's and all of us should be drilling in
the
glance over the shoulder to verify retraction on all touch and goes and
go
arounds. Practicing climb outs from minimum airspeed with all flap
settings
is a very neglected part of airwork and probably as important to safety
as
doing stalls.

Well, exactly what would you do about it if you're flying a missed
approach or
a touch and go and found your flaps had not retracted?

For what it's worth, I somehow don't find climbing out with flaps extended
as
scary a prospect as having a pilot not recognize when the aircraft is
close to
stall.