Continuation Bias, the Approach That Looked Fine Until It Didn't, and the Go-Around Decision Your Brain Will Fight You On

Continuation bias - the tendency to press on with a plan even when conditions have changed - is one of the most dangerous cognitive traps in aviation. Landing accidents involving pilots who had the opportunity to go around and did not remain a leading category in general aviation year after year, according to National Transportation Safety Board accident data. The go-around is not a decision you make on final; it is a commitment you make before the approach ever begins.

What Is Continuation Bias and Why Does It Trap Pilots?

Continuation bias is a well-documented human factors phenomenon. Once a plan is set - in this case, landing on that runway - every new piece of information gets filtered through the goal of completing that plan, rather than evaluated on its own merits.

Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center have studied this in simulation for decades. Their findings are consistent: the pilots who made the go-around decision earliest were the ones who set a threshold before the approach started. They pre-committed to a standard. No new in-the-moment decision was required - they simply executed a plan they had already made.

The pilots who struggled were the ones trying to evaluate a deteriorating situation dynamically on short final. At 150 feet above the ground, fast and drifting off centerline, cognitive workload is at its absolute peak. That is exactly the moment the brain is least equipped to override a continuation impulse. This is not a character flaw - it is human neuroscience.

Why Does the Go-Around Stay Hard Even After You Learn About It?

The go-around is, in theory, the simplest safety valve in aviation. Add full power, climb away, try again. It is required on the Private Pilot checkride. The Airman Certification Standards (ACS) require demonstrating it. Every flight instructor on earth teaches it.

And yet continuation bias wins constantly. Every time a pilot successfully salvages an unstabilized approach, the brain files that outcome away: I can fix a bad approach. That habit pattern becomes difficult to override - and it will eventually meet a runway it cannot beat.

Consider a student pilot on a solo cross-country who arrives high and fast, touches down at 2,000 feet on a 3,500-foot runway, and gets stopped just fine. The brain’s lesson: don’t go around, you can fix this. Later that day, at a shorter airport with a 2,500-foot runway, the same high-fast approach repeats - and the same habit pattern fires. The outcome changes.

When Should You Decide to Go Around?

Here is a simple rule: if you are asking yourself whether you should go around, the answer is yes.

The question itself is the trigger. By the time you are second-guessing an approach, you are already behind it - reacting instead of flying. The mental bandwidth spent evaluating a deteriorating situation is bandwidth pulled away from aircraft control, and that cascade is what gets people hurt.

Brief your go-around criteria before every flight. Say it out loud: If I am not stable by 500 feet, I am going around. Moving the go-around out of the “in-the-moment decision” category and into the “already decided” category is what removes continuation bias from the equation.

What Are the Stabilized Approach Criteria?

Professional operators and commercial carriers use a stabilized approach gate at 500 feet AGL in visual conditions. At that point, the approach must meet all of the following:

• On the correct glidepath
• On target airspeed, within approximately 5 knots
• Correct configuration (gear down if applicable, appropriate flap setting)
• Tracking the extended centerline
• Descent rate appropriate - not excessive

If any condition is not met at 500 feet AGL, the approach gets a go-around. Full stop. No negotiating.

For student pilots in visual conditions, three criteria cover the essential check: on speed, on centerline, and on a normal glidepath by the time you cross the threshold. If all three are not met, go around.

Go-arounds should be boring. If a go-around ever feels exciting, you waited too long.

How Do You Execute a Go-Around Correctly?

In most single-engine training aircraft, the procedure follows this sequence:

1. Full power - smoothly and immediately
2. Pitch to arrest the descent - not an aggressive pull-up; stop going down first, then climb
3. Reduce flaps in stages per your aircraft’s Pilot’s Operating Handbook

The pitch step matters more than most students expect. Pulling the nose up aggressively with full flaps and airspeed can cause a balloon. Not changing pitch at all while adding power keeps the nose low and wastes runway. The correct picture is power plus a slight pitch increase to stop the descent, then manage flaps deliberately.

Flaps come up in stages, not all at once. Most training aircraft call for reducing to a takeoff setting first - typically the first notch or approximately 10 degrees - before coming up further. Removing all flaps in one motion from a low, slow approach can cause the aircraft to sink before the engine builds power. This has caused accidents. Read your Pilot’s Operating Handbook and know your specific aircraft’s go-around procedure before you need it.

What About a Go-Around from the Flare?

A go-around from the flare is a different situation. The aircraft is very slow, very low, and close to the stall. Power application must be smooth and immediate, and pitch must be managed carefully.

Resist the instinct to yank the airplane into the air. In many light training aircraft, the main gear may actually contact the runway before the aircraft climbs - that is by design, not a mistake. The goal is to smoothly accelerate, let the airplane fly itself off, and climb away. Do not force it off the ground.

How Do You Build Instinctive Recognition of an Unstabilized Approach?

Stabilized approach criteria are not useful as a mental checklist you work through on short final. By the time you are there, you do not have the bandwidth. Recognition has to be a pattern the brain matches instinctively.

Build a reference template of what a normal stabilized approach actually feels like: the sight picture out the windshield, the engine sound, the airspeed indicator, the vertical speed. Fly it repeatedly until normal is obvious.

Then intentionally fly high approaches, fast approaches, and crosswind-drifted approaches - with an instructor - not to practice salvaging them, but to know what wrong looks like. Recognition is half of the go-around decision. The other half is the pre-flight commitment you have already made.

Key Takeaways

• Continuation bias is the tendency to press on with a plan even when new information says it is no longer valid - it is the dominant cognitive trap behind landing accidents.
• If you are asking whether to go around, the answer is yes. The question is the trigger.
• Professional operators use a 500-foot AGL stabilized approach gate. On speed within 5 knots, on path, configured, and tracking centerline - or it is a go-around, every time.
• Flaps come up in stages. Never remove all flaps at once from a low, slow configuration.
• Brief your personal minimums before every flight and move the go-around into the “already decided” category before the approach begins. The AOPA Air Safety Institute and NTSB accident briefs have extensive data on this if you want to study the numbers.