The Go-Around and the Five Mistakes That Turn a Recoverable Approach Into an Accident Report

Most student pilots practice far too few go-arounds - and almost none of them self-initiated. The go-around is not a failed landing; it is a professional aeronautical decision, and executing one cleanly is a skill that belongs in the same category as the landing itself. The five mistakes covered here show up repeatedly on checkride score sheets and in NTSB accident narratives.

Why Pilots Keep Landing When They Shouldn’t

The National Transportation Safety Board identifies a cognitive pattern in general aviation accidents called plan continuation bias - the tendency to keep doing what you were already doing even when the evidence says to stop.

It shows up in weather accidents. It shows up in landing accidents. The approach isn’t right, the airspeed is off, the glide path is wrong, but the runway is right there and the gear is already down. Something in the brain says: I can make this work.

That instinct is wrong, and it has contributed to a significant number of runway overruns, hard landings, and reports in the NTSB database.

When Do You Go Around?

The stabilized approach concept provides a clear framework. By 500 feet AGL on a visual approach, you should be on speed, on centerline, on glide path, and in your final landing configuration. If any one of those conditions isn’t met at 500 feet, the go-around is automatic. Not “let me see what the picture looks like closer in” - you go around.

The critical piece is that this decision needs to be made before the approach. Before turning final, set a personal standard: “If the picture isn’t right at 500 feet, I’m going around.” Commit to it out loud if that helps. At 200 feet, a little fast and left of centerline, is not the moment to develop a go-around policy.

The Airman Certification Standards for the private pilot practical test are unambiguous: you must be able to initiate a go-around from any point in the approach and landing sequence. That includes the flare. That includes after the wheels have touched down. Any point.

Mistake #1: Delayed Power Application

When the go-around decision is made, power comes first. Not the radio call. Not the flaps. Not the trim. Power - full throttle, immediately.

On short final or in the flare, the airplane is in a nose-high, low-power, low-airspeed configuration. High drag, minimal thrust. Every second before full power is extended time in an energy-depleted state. At low altitude, the margin between climbing and settling is extremely thin.

Power. First. Always. Without exception.

Mistake #2: Flap Retraction Sequencing

A common checkride failure point: the student adds power correctly, then immediately retracts flaps all the way - and the airplane sinks.

At full flaps, the airplane generates significant drag but also produces lift at lower airspeeds than with flaps retracted. Pull the flaps up all at once and you lose the drag - but you also lose the low-speed lift. If airspeed hasn’t built yet, the altitude loss can be significant. At 100 feet, there is nowhere for that altitude to go.

The correct sequence - verify in your Pilot’s Operating Handbook, as it varies by aircraft - is: add power, establish a positive rate of climb, then retract flaps incrementally. In a Cessna 172, that typically means going from full flaps to 10 degrees first, confirming a positive climb, then bringing them up in stages. Examiners watch for this sequence: power, pitch to climb attitude, carb heat off if applicable, flaps in stages, trim as needed.

Mistake #3: Not Tracking the Extended Centerline

After a go-around, you’re at low altitude, climbing, and cleaning up the airplane. A lot of students start turning too soon - banking back toward the pattern before they have the altitude to do it safely, or simply drifting because they’re not actively tracking the extended centerline of the runway.

Standard procedure is fly runway heading and climb to a safe altitude before re-entering the traffic pattern. At a controlled airport, listen for tower - they may issue a specific heading or turn. At an uncontrolled field, make your radio call and advise traffic. Do not add bank angle while still low, slow, and cleaning up the configuration.

Mistake #4: Ballooning at Low Altitude

Here’s a specific scenario worth understanding. The airplane is on short final at 30 to 40 feet, slightly fast from a gust. The pilot flares, the airplane floats, and now it’s 15 feet above the midpoint of the runway with decaying airspeed, full flaps, and the far end of the runway visible through the windscreen.

The pilot decides to go around. Full power is added. The airplane - in ground effect, already pitched nose-high from the flare, full flaps generating lift at low airspeed - pitches up aggressively. Airspeed decreases further. This is a setup for an accelerated stall at the worst possible altitude.

The fix is pitch discipline. Adding power in a go-around from a full-flap, low-altitude, nose-high position is not an invitation to zoom-climb. The goal is to establish the climb attitude specified in the POH - a real and meaningful difference from pitching aggressively upward. Pitch to the attitude, let airspeed build to a safe number, then work the flaps incrementally.

Mistake #5: Waiting Too Long to Make the Call

A go-around executed at 500 feet is almost always cleaner than one executed at 50 feet. At 500 feet there is airspeed, altitude, and time to execute the procedure correctly. At 50 feet, every element of the procedure is harder and the margins are nearly gone.

The psychological pull toward “just land it” is strongest at 50 feet precisely because the runway is right there. The brain has been working toward this landing for several minutes. Plan continuation bias is at its peak.

This is the core purpose of stabilized approach criteria - not as a bureaucratic rule, but as a tool that moves the decision point up to where options are still good, where the go-around is easier to execute and easier to decide.

What to Do in Gusty Conditions

When surface winds are gusty, most instructors teach adding half the gust spread to approach speed - a 10-knot gust factor means adding 5 knots to approach speed. But gusty conditions also mean the stabilized approach standard should be stricter, not more forgiving. A marginal approach at 500 feet may be seriously compromised at 200 feet after the next gust. Give yourself more margin, not less.

The Practical Takeaway

Before flying the first approach, make a deal: set a specific decision point - 500 feet, or wherever your instructor establishes - and make it a rule. If the picture isn’t right at that point, the go-around is automatic. No negotiating, no “let’s see how it develops.”

The pilots who execute go-arounds quickly and cleanly are not the pilots who couldn’t land. They’re the pilots who hold a higher standard for what acceptable looks like.

You can always go around. You can fly another approach. What you cannot do is un-land.

Further reading: The AOPA Air Safety Institute maintains case studies on loss of control during the approach and landing phase drawn from real accident data. The FAA Airplane Flying Handbook, Chapter 8 covers the go-around procedure in detail. The Airman Certification Standards document exactly what examiners expect to see.

Key Takeaways

• Plan continuation bias is the cognitive trap that keeps pilots landing when they should go around - recognizing it is the first step to defeating it.
• A go-around is a professional decision, not a failed landing. Pilots who execute them quickly hold a higher standard for acceptable.
• Power first, always - no other action takes priority when initiating a go-around.
• Retract flaps incrementally, not all at once; premature full retraction causes altitude loss at the worst possible moment.
• Set your go-around decision point before the approach. 500 feet AGL is when you still have options. 50 feet is when you don’t.