Can You Fly A Visual Go-Around On An Instrument Approach Clearance, And What Happens When You Float Down The Runway

Yes, you can fly a visual go-around off an instrument approach clearance rather than the published missed approach - but only if you communicate clearly and resolve your IFR clearance. The published missed approach exists for one purpose: to guide you safely back to altitude when you can’t see. Once you break out into visual conditions, the visual world takes over, and either the tower’s real-time instructions or your own CTAF calls govern what you do next.

This question - raised in a recent Boldmethod write-up - lives in the gray area between instrument and visual flying, and it trips up a lot of otherwise sharp instrument pilots.

The Scenario Almost Every Instrument Pilot Will Face

You shoot an approach in marginal-but-legal weather. Conditions underneath are better than minimums, you break out with the field made, and you transition to a normal landing. Then the landing goes sideways - extra speed, a gust, a shorter runway, or a plain float - and you make the smart call to go around.

The instinct for many instrument-rated pilots is to think: I was on an instrument approach, so I owe ATC the published missed approach. They reach for the briefed miss even though they can see the entire airport, the pattern, and every airplane in it.

That instinct is usually wrong.

Is the Published Missed Approach a Rule or a Tool?

The published missed approach is not a rule that activates the moment you intercept the final approach course. It’s a tool. It exists to get you from a point near the runway back up to a safe altitude and a known position when you cannot see - in the clouds, at minimums, with no runway environment in sight. It’s obstacle-protected and requires no eyeballs.

But in this scenario you’re not in the clouds. You broke out. You have the runway, the pattern, and visual conditions all around you. That changes the entire picture.

Going Around at a Towered Airport

At a towered field, the controller is right there - looking out the window or watching the scope and sequencing traffic in real time.

When you tell the tower you’re going around, the controller will give you an instruction: fly runway heading, enter left downwind, make right traffic. In that moment, the controller’s instruction is what you fly - not the published miss. The tower is actively separating you using visual sequencing, and their real-time instruction supersedes the procedure you briefed.

The one thing you cannot do is go silent and improvise. The worst version of this is the pilot who floats, goes around, and quietly turns crosswind without a word - while the controller expects the published miss and another airplane may be set up on that missed approach path.

Key the mike, say “Going around,” and take their instruction. Communication closes the gap between what you’re doing and what everyone else expects.

Going Around at a Non-Towered Airport

This is where it gets more interesting, because there’s nobody in a tower to sequence you.

On an instrument approach clearance into a field with no tower, approach control typically clears you for the approach and then tells you to change to the advisory frequency (CTAF). From that point you’re flying the approach but operating visually in the pattern once you break out, self-announcing like every other airplane.

The real question becomes your IFR clearance. You are technically still on an IFR clearance until you either cancel it or complete the approach.

If you cancel IFR, you become a visual airplane in a visual pattern. Fly a normal go-around and pattern entry, announcing on the CTAF - that’s the clean way to do it when conditions allow.
If you do not cancel, you still owe ATC either the published missed approach or a call telling them exactly what you intend. They’re protecting airspace for you based on that clearance, and that protection assumes you’re flying the procedure. You cannot wander the visual pattern on a live IFR clearance and assume the system knows where you are. It doesn’t.

Why This Matters for Pilots

This affects anyone who flies approaches into non-towered fields in marginal-but-legal conditions - which describes a huge amount of real-world instrument flying. Picture a 1,000-foot ceiling and 5 miles visibility: you’re perfectly comfortable maneuvering visually underneath, but you shot the approach to be safe and legal on the way in. That’s exactly the setup where a botched landing turns into this decision.

The answer is to know before you float whether you’re going to cancel and go visual, or stay IFR and fly the miss.

What Do the Regulations Actually Say?

There is nothing in the Federal Aviation Regulations that forces you to land off an instrument approach. A go-around is always available - at any point, all the way down to the flare and beyond. Safety of flight comes first, and no controller or rule will fault you for going around off a bad landing. The question is purely what you do next, and who you tell.

The Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) is consistent: if you execute a missed approach prior to landing on an IFR clearance, the expectation is that you fly the published procedure unless ATC gives you alternate instructions. In visual conditions with a tower talking to you, those alternate instructions come immediately. At a non-towered field, you create that clarity yourself - by canceling IFR or telling approach your intentions before you go maneuvering.

How to Fly It: Five Practical Steps

Decide early. Make the land-or-go-around decision before you’re deep into a float. If the airplane isn’t planted in the touchdown zone and slowing, go around. The decision is free; runway behind you is not.
Prioritize correctly. Fly the airplane first - pitch, power, configuration, positive rate of climb, clean up on schedule. A go-around is a go-around regardless of clearance. Get it climbing and under control before you touch the radio.
Communicate intent. At a towered field, three words: “Going around,” then do what the tower says. At a non-towered field, announce on the CTAF that you’re going around and state your intention (upwind, crosswind) so nearby traffic knows where you’ll be.
Sort out your clearance. Towered: the controller is handling you. Non-towered: decide right then - cancel IFR and rejoin visually, or stay on with approach and tell them (or fly the published miss).
Don’t let paperwork override your eyeballs. If you can see the airport, the traffic, and the pattern - and a tower is sequencing you - flying visually and following instructions is the smart, safe, legal move. Flying a full published miss when you’re in clear air underneath a broken layer can climb you back into the clouds for no reason.

One Opinion Worth Sitting With

Here’s a point flagged plainly as opinion: this is an area where instrument training often under-serves pilots. We drill the missed approach as a rigid, memorized procedure - which it should be, because in the soup it has to be automatic. But we spend almost no time on the far more common real-world case: you broke out, you’re visual, the landing went sideways, and now you’re a VFR airplane in everything but paperwork.

Practicing the smooth transition from the instrument world back into the visual pattern - and how to communicate it cleanly - is worth doing with an instructor on a nice day. Go shoot an approach in good weather, break it off, and practice going around and rejoining the pattern while talking through exactly what your clearance requires. It’s cheap insurance.

The Bottom Line

The published missed approach is for when you can’t see. When you can see, the visual world and the people managing it - the tower, or your own eyes and radio calls on the CTAF - take over. A visual go-around off an instrument approach is absolutely legal and absolutely normal, as long as you communicate and square away your clearance. The airplane will always let you go around; your job is to make sure everyone else knows what you’re doing.

Key Takeaways

You are never forced to land off an instrument approach - a go-around is legal at any point, down to the flare and beyond.
The published missed approach is a tool for when you can’t see, not an automatic obligation the moment you’re on the approach.
At a towered airport, say “Going around” and fly the controller’s real-time instruction - it supersedes the published miss.
At a non-towered airport, either cancel IFR to rejoin the pattern visually, or keep the clearance and fly the published miss (or tell approach your intentions).
Decide before you float: know in advance whether you’ll cancel and go visual or stay IFR and fly the miss.