The go-around and the two seconds of hesitation that turn a safe landing into a dangerous one

The go-around is the only maneuver in a pilot’s repertoire where the decision is harder than the execution. Physically, it takes five minutes to learn: full power, carb heat off, pitch for the climb, retract flaps incrementally, climb out. But convincing yourself to actually do it at 200 feet AGL with the threshold sliding underneath you requires understanding both the mechanics and the psychology working against you.

Why Is It So Hard to Commit to a Go-Around?

Every approach involves investment. You’ve flown the pattern, made your radio calls, configured the airplane. When something goes wrong — you’re high, fast, or a gust shoves you off centerline — your brain runs a calculation that has nothing to do with aerodynamics: I’ve come this far, I can fix this.

That’s the sunk cost fallacy, and it kills people in airplanes.

The NTSB has documented this pattern repeatedly. Loss of control on final approach and during landing accounts for a disproportionate share of general aviation accidents. In case after case, the pilot had the option to go around and didn’t take it — not because they didn’t know how, but because they didn’t want to.

What Happens When You Force a Bad Landing?

Picture this: you’re a student pilot, maybe ten hours in. You flare a little high, the airplane floats, and you’re past the thousand-foot markers with the wheels still three feet off the ground. The temptation is to push the nose down and force it onto the pavement.

That push creates a bounce. A bounce from a high flare with the nose pitching down can trigger a porpoise oscillation that worsens with every contact. Training airplanes have bent firewalls from exactly this sequence. The correct answer — the only answer — is go around.

How Do You Execute a Go-Around Step by Step?

The Airman Certification Standards for the private pilot checkride list the go-around as a required task. The examiner is looking for a timely decision — recognizing the need before you’re out of options, not after.

Step 1: Power. Full throttle, smoothly but without hesitation. If carburetor heat is on, push it off. Hot air robs you of power, and you need every bit of it.

Step 2: Pitch. As power comes in, the nose will want to pitch up. Manage pitch attitude to establish a climb without getting slow. Target your normal climb speed — in a Cessna 172, that’s approximately 76 knots (Vy) for best rate of climb. Set the attitude, let the airspeed stabilize.

Step 3: Flaps. Do not retract them all at once. Going from full flaps to zero flaps in one motion dumps lift instantly and causes a sink — potentially into the runway or whatever lies beyond it. Retract one notch at a time: 30° to 20°, let the airplane accelerate, then 20° to 10°, accelerate again, then 10° to 0°. Your POH has the specific procedure. Follow it.

Step 4: Fly the airplane. In the stress of a go-around, pilots get consumed by flaps, power settings, radio calls, and traffic. Meanwhile the airplane drifts off centerline or the airspeed goes unmonitored. Aviate, navigate, communicate — in that order.

When Should You Decide to Go Around?

Make the decision before you’re on final. Establish your personal go-around criteria in advance:

• If you are not stabilized by 500 feet AGL, go around. Stabilized means on speed, on glidepath, configured for landing, and not making large corrections.
• If the airplane has not touched down in the first third of the runway, go around. That preserves two-thirds of the runway for stopping.
• If you ask yourself “should I go around?” — the answer is yes. The fact that the question entered your mind means something triggered it. Trust that instinct.

How Does Excess Speed Affect Landing Distance?

Consider a cross-country fuel stop at an unfamiliar airport with a 3,200-foot runway. Your performance charts say it’s adequate, but the wind has shifted to a 5-knot tailwind, density altitude is higher than planned, and you cross the threshold at 80 knots instead of 65.

Every knot above your target approach speed increases landing roll. A tailwind component adds more. Stack those factors onto a shorter runway on a warm afternoon, and the remaining pavement may not be enough to stop. The answer is not to stand on the brakes. The answer is go around.

The trap: you’re tired, you’ve been flying for two hours, there’s no other airport for 30 miles, and that voice says you can make it work. Resist that voice. That voice has bent landing gear and run airplanes into ditches.

How Do You Handle a Go-Around From Low Altitude?

The go-around from 50 feet or 30 feet — already in the flare, slow, with full flaps — is the most critical go-around you’ll ever perform and the one you’ve probably practiced least.

You are in a high-drag, low-energy state. When you add full power, the airplane will not leap into the sky. It will accelerate slowly because of all the drag from flaps and landing configuration.

Be patient. Let the airplane accelerate. Do not force a climb. Maintain altitude or gain altitude gradually while speed builds. Forcing a climb before the airplane is ready bleeds airspeed, wakes the stall horn, and trades one bad situation for a worse one.

Watch for torque and P-factor at full power and low speed. The airplane will yaw left — especially in a Cessna 172 or Piper Cherokee. Apply right rudder immediately and keep the airplane coordinated.

What Is an Unstabilized Approach and Why Does It Matter?

This is the silent killer: the approach that looks fine but isn’t.

You’re on a three-mile final, just a little high, so you pull power back slightly. Now a little fast, so you raise the nose. The airplane settles into a slightly nose-high, low-power, descending configuration. You’re technically on the glidepath because you’ve been making constant corrections — but each correction costs energy, and you’re falling further behind the airplane. By the threshold, you’re slow, high, and out of options.

A stabilized approach should feel calm. Small corrections, steady airspeed, consistent descent rate. If it doesn’t feel calm, it isn’t working, and it’s time to go around.

How Can You Practice Go-Arounds Effectively?

On your next lesson, tell your instructor you want to practice intentional go-arounds — not the emergency kind, but the planned kind. Fly the pattern, get established on final, and at 300 feet AGL, regardless of how the approach looks, execute a go-around. Do it three times.

Make the go-around as routine as extending your flaps. The more you practice under no pressure, the easier it becomes when the pressure is real.

After you execute a go-around, reset mentally. Don’t spend the next lap in the pattern dwelling on what went wrong. Brief the approach again and fly the airplane. The go-around was the smartest decision you made all day. Forcing a bad landing — that’s the failure.

Key Takeaways

• The go-around is not a failure — it’s the correct response to a deteriorating approach or landing situation
• Decide your go-around criteria before the approach: not stabilized by 500 feet AGL, not down in the first third of the runway, or any doubt at all
• Execute the mechanics in order: full power, manage pitch, retract flaps incrementally, fly the airplane
• Low-altitude go-arounds demand patience — let the airplane accelerate before climbing, and apply right rudder for torque effects
• Practice intentional go-arounds regularly so the maneuver is automatic when it counts

References: FAA Airplane Flying Handbook, NTSB approach and landing accident reports, Airman Certification Standards for the Private Pilot Certificate.