The Go-Around Decision, the Commit Point You Have to Set Before Every Approach, and the Salvage Attempt That Turns a Bad Landing Into an Accident Report

The go-around is not a sign of a failed approach. It is the moment you recognized a bad approach and chose to fly a better one. Every airline captain, military aviator, and competition aerobatic pilot will say the same thing: the ability to say “this one isn’t going to work” and act on it cleanly is a skill - one that requires a decision framework built before things get busy.

Why Do So Many Accidents Happen on Final?

The NTSB publishes general aviation accident data annually, and runway overruns consistently rank among the leading accident categories for small aircraft. Reading through individual reports reveals a pattern: most describe an approach already in trouble before the aircraft reached the threshold. High and fast on final. An unexpected tailwind component. A late turn from base that compressed the whole approach geometry.

In nearly every case, there is a moment - sometimes two or three moments - where the data shows the go-around should have happened. But it didn’t.

Deciding to go around below 1,000 feet, with the runway filling the windshield and the landing already mentally filed, is genuinely difficult. It feels like abandoning something you’ve been building for three minutes. It consumes mental energy you may not have to spare. That’s exactly why the decision cannot wait until that moment.

What Is a Stabilized Approach - and Why Do Airlines Make It Mandatory?

Aviation professionals call this the stabilized approach concept. Airlines require it in writing. Their flight operations manuals specify exactly what conditions must exist at defined checkpoints on final, and if those conditions aren’t met, policy requires a mandatory go-around - no exceptions.

The standard gates are 1,000 feet above airport elevation for instrument approaches and 500 feet for visual approaches. At those points, crews verify four things:

1. Airspeed within the target range
2. Descent rate consistent with arriving at the aim point
3. Configuration complete - flaps set, gear down if applicable, checklist finished
4. Aligned with the runway centerline

All four must be satisfied. If any one is not, the approach is unstabilized and the answer is go-around. You’re flying a Cessna 172 at a local airport, not a Boeing 737 into a major hub - but the logic is identical.

How Do I Set a Commit Point Before the Approach?

Before turning base leg, set your criteria. Out loud, in your head, or on your kneeboard. Something like:

• If I’m not stabilized by 500 feet above the airport, I go around.
• If I’m high on the glidepath with less than a mile to the threshold, I go around.
• If there’s anything on or near the runway I’m not 100% confident about, I go around.

This is a commit point. You’re making the decision during setup, when your brain has the capacity to think clearly. When those conditions arise on the actual approach, you’re not deciding - you’re executing a procedure you already established.

What Is Plan Continuation Bias and Why Does It Matter?

Researchers who study human factors in aviation use the term plan continuation bias to describe the tendency to continue with a plan even when new information says it should change. It appears in accident reports across more than a century of aviation history. The pilot knew something wasn’t right. The pilot kept going - not out of recklessness, but because the brain, once committed to a goal and a timeline, resists changing course under workload.

Building explicit commit criteria before the approach counters that bias directly. You made the rule when your brain had nothing else to manage. On the approach, you’re just following it.

How Do I Execute a Go-Around Correctly?

A good decision followed by poor execution can put you in exactly the kind of trouble you were trying to avoid. The sequence matters.

Power first. Full power, immediately - not gradual, not tentative, not a half-throttle to gauge the response. On a carbureted engine, move the carb heat to the cold position before advancing the throttle, because carb heat reduces available power and on a go-around you need all of it.

Manage pitch carefully. Two common errors pull in opposite directions. Pitching up hard the moment the throttle advances risks demanding maximum climb performance before the aircraft has had time to accelerate. Establish a positive climbing pitch attitude - targeting Vy (best rate of climb speed) - and let the airspeed build as you hold the attitude. The opposite error is not pitching enough, leaving the aircraft in a shallow, low-energy arc. The pitch attitude must be committed.

Apply right rudder immediately and firmly. On a single-engine propeller aircraft, torque, P-factor, and propeller slipstream all yaw the nose left at exactly the moment you’re low, slow, and establishing a climb. Drifting left off the runway centerline at low altitude puts you in a shallow banked turn close to the ground - not where you want to be sorting out a flap sequence.

How Do I Handle Flap Retraction During a Go-Around?

This is where practical test failures happen most often, so the rule deserves its own section.

You are on short final with full flaps (30 degrees on a Cessna). You go around. Power goes in, pitch is established - and then you retract the flaps all the way to zero because you want to climb.

Do not do that.

Retracting full flaps to zero at low altitude while the aircraft transitions from a descending approach to a climbing go-around will cause the airplane to sink. A few feet of unexpected sink at 150 feet above the runway environment is not a margin to give away.

Retract flaps in stages. Most light trainer go-around procedures call for reducing to an intermediate setting - usually 10 to 20 degrees - once a positive rate of climb is established and the aircraft is accelerating. Then retract the remaining flaps incrementally as you continue to climb. The specific numbers live in your aircraft’s Pilot’s Operating Handbook (POH), but the principle is consistent across nearly every light trainer: stages, not all at once.

What Does the ACS Require for Go-Arounds on the Checkride?

The Airman Certification Standards (ACS) for the private pilot certificate describe the go-around task with specific, measurable standards:

• Make a timely decision to initiate the go-around
• Follow the aircraft’s go-around procedure from the POH
• Maintain positive aircraft control throughout
• Fly the appropriate speed - typically Vy in a normal go-around, or Vx (best angle of climb speed) if obstacles are a factor
• Keep bank angle no greater than 30 degrees during any turns
• Track the appropriate ground path - the extended runway centerline

On the practical test, an examiner may explicitly call for a go-around, but they’re more interested in whether you’ll call for one yourself. They may let an approach progressively deteriorate, watching whether you recognize it and respond, or whether you attempt to salvage the unsalvageable. A clean, timely go-around you initiated signals sound judgment. A high-and-fast landing with most of the runway behind you signals something else.

During the oral portion, examiners want two things: the technical sequence and the decision framework. A student who can execute the maneuver but can’t articulate specific trigger criteria has prepared for half the question.

What Should I Do If I Bounce a Landing?

A bounced landing is one of the most time-compressed decisions in the pattern. You touch down, the aircraft bounces, and you’re now somewhere between 5 and 15 feet above the runway surface at below approach speed.

Evaluate it quickly. A small bounce with the aircraft still tracking the runway and significant runway remaining ahead can sometimes be accepted - let the aircraft settle into a full-stall landing with proper back pressure. That window is narrow. The moment a bounce puts you more than a few feet up, or any uncertainty enters the picture, the answer is go-around.

The NTSB database contains a recurring category investigators describe as hard landing, attempted recovery. The pattern repeats: a pilot bounces, attempts to save the landing, stalls trying to re-establish the climb with full flaps still extended, or runs off the runway end trying to force the aircraft back down.

The rule is clean and absolute: if you bounce and you have doubt, you go around. Full power and a positive pitch attitude are not optional on a bounce recovery - they are the only margin left. Runway behind you is gone. Runway ahead is everything.

How Should I Practice Go-Arounds Before My Checkride?

The most effective way to build this skill is to set up approaches you intend to go around from. Brief your criteria with your instructor before the flight. Execute when those criteria trigger. This builds a feel for what a good approach looks like versus one that’s drifting sideways - and it builds confidence that the go-around is not the end of the flight. It’s the beginning of a better one.

Students who only go around reactively - when an instructor calls for it or something obviously breaks - never develop the instinct to call it themselves. Students who practice it proactively start recognizing deteriorating approaches early enough to act on them. That recognition is a trained skill.

Key Takeaways

• The go-around is a decision made before the approach begins, not a last-second reaction when the runway fills the windshield.
• Airlines use 500-foot (visual) and 1,000-foot (instrument) stabilized approach gates with four mandatory criteria. The logic applies equally to a Cessna 172.
• Plan continuation bias is a documented cognitive tendency - pre-set commit criteria are how you counter it before workload peaks.
• During the go-around, power goes in first (full and immediate), pitch is established toward Vy, right rudder counters left-turning tendency, and flaps come up in stages - never all at once.
• A bounced landing with any doubt is always a go-around. Full power and positive pitch attitude are the only margin available.