Consider an aircraft cleared for touch-and-go as an arriving aircraft until it ___.

• A. Takes off again
• B. Touches down
• C. Goes around
• D. Lands and vacates

Answer: (B)

When an aircraft is cleared for touch-and-go, the controller is authorizing a landing with the expectation that the aircraft will immediately take off again without stopping. The important moment that ends this clearance is when the aircraft actually touches down on the runway. At that instant the landing portion is completed, and the aircraft proceeds with the takeoff roll or is then given new instructions. So touching down is the end point of the cleared touch-and-go; the takeoff happens after that, not before. A go-around would be used if the landing is aborted; a full-stop landing with vacating the runway isn’t what this clearance specifies.