The go-around on the checkride and the three seconds of hesitation that fail more applicants than any botched landing

The go-around is the single maneuver that fails more checkride applicants than short-field landings, steep turns, or power-on stalls combined. It’s not a difficult procedure—full power, pitch up, manage flaps, climb. What fails applicants is three seconds of hesitation when they try to salvage a bad approach instead of making the decisive call to go around. The Airman Certification Standards (ACS) use the word “prompt” deliberately, and Designated Pilot Examiners are evaluating whether you will go around, not whether you can.

Why Do Pilots Hesitate on the Go-Around?

The problem starts in training. Most students practice three to five go-arounds before their checkride. Compare that to the fifty, one hundred, or two hundred landings they’ve logged. The result is deep muscle memory for landing and almost none for going around.

When a student is on short final, five to seven knots fast, floating past the thousand-foot markers, the instinct is to save the approach. That instinct is trained into them by hundreds of landing repetitions. The go-around, by contrast, feels unfamiliar—and unfamiliar actions get delayed under pressure.

How to Build Go-Around Muscle Memory

Dedicate an entire training session to nothing but go-arounds. Fly at least ten in a single session, initiated from different points on the approach:

• Half-mile final when you recognize the approach isn’t stabilized
• 200 feet AGL when the wind shifts unexpectedly
• 50 feet when something doesn’t feel right in the flare
• 10 feet in ground effect—the one that scares people most, and the one a DPE is most likely to call for

Practicing at altitude on simulated approaches is fine as an introduction, but it won’t prepare you for the real thing. At 3,000 feet, there’s no ground rushing up, no adrenaline, no pressure. The hesitation lives close to the ground, and that’s where you need to eliminate it.

What Is the Correct Go-Around Procedure?

The sequence matters. Getting it out of order creates dangerous situations close to the ground.

Step 1: Full power. Smoothly but assertively push the throttle forward. This is not a gradual addition—you need that power now. Simultaneously pitch to the go-around attitude (roughly normal climb attitude in most trainers). Priority one is stopping the descent.

Step 2: Carb heat off (if it was on). Cold air means more power.

Step 3: Retract flaps incrementally. In a Cessna 172 with full flaps (30 degrees), come up to 20 degrees first. Let the airplane accelerate and climb. Then reduce to 10 degrees. Then retract fully. Retracting all flaps at once from full deflection near the ground removes a large amount of lift instantly—students have lost 50 feet of altitude doing this, and at 100 feet AGL, that margin doesn’t exist.

Step 4: Establish best rate of climb speed (Vy). In the 172, that’s approximately 74 knots. Hold it.

Step 5: Fly the traffic pattern. This step gets forgotten entirely. After the go-around, fly a purposeful crosswind, downwind, base, and final. The examiner is watching whether you reintegrate into the pattern with intention or wander aimlessly.

When Should You Go Around?

DPEs report that vague answers like “when the landing doesn’t look right” won’t impress on the oral exam. Be specific:

1. Unstabilized approach. Too fast, too slow, too high, or misaligned with centerline inside 500 feet AGL. Below that altitude, there isn’t room to fix a bad approach.
2. Runway not clear. An aircraft that hasn’t exited, an animal, a vehicle—any obstruction.
3. Windshear or sudden gusts. Unexpected airspeed fluctuation, high sink rate, or a wind shift that changes your crosswind component.
4. Wake turbulence. Insufficient spacing behind a larger aircraft.
5. Floating past your landing point. You’re in the flare, the airplane won’t settle, and you’re running out of usable runway. This is where ego becomes dangerous.

The Short-Field Checkride Scenario That Catches Applicants

The DPE assigns a touchdown point. The ACS requires landing within 200 feet beyond that point at minimum controllable airspeed. You get slightly low on base-to-final, add power to correct, and carry that extra energy into the flare. You float past the 200-foot mark.

Go around. Immediately. Landing 250 feet past the point means you’ve busted the standard and failed the task regardless. But a clean, decisive go-around shows the examiner a pilot who recognizes when standards aren’t being met and takes appropriate action. Most DPEs will offer a second attempt—and now you know exactly what went wrong.

DPEs consistently report the same thing: they’re not looking for perfection. They’re looking for judgment. The applicant who goes around from a bad approach demonstrates better judgment than the one who forces a sloppy landing onto the runway. Every time.

The Verbal Commitment That Eliminates Hesitation

When you decide to go around, say it out loud: “Going around.” Even when flying solo. On the checkride, announce it to the examiner. The verbal callout commits you to the action and eliminates wavering. The moment the words leave your mouth, your hands are already moving—power up, pitch up, flaps incrementally, climb.

If the examiner initiates a go-around—either by calling it or by pointing at an imaginary obstruction—your response should be immediate. Not a question, not a confirmation. Execute. Power, pitch, configure, climb.

Reframing the Go-Around as a Routine Tool

Every approach has exactly two possible outcomes: you land, or you go around. Those are the only options. The go-around isn’t an emergency procedure you hope to never use—it represents half of your options every time you turn final.

Every airline captain and military aviator treats the go-around as a routine decision-making tool. Student pilots should adopt the same mindset. A go-around is not an admission of failure. It is the best possible outcome of a bad approach.

Key Takeaways

• The go-around fails more applicants than any other checkride maneuver because of hesitation, not difficulty
• The ACS requires prompt and decisive action—three seconds of wavering is enough to fail
• Most students practice only 3-5 go-arounds versus hundreds of landings, creating a dangerous muscle-memory gap
• Never retract full flaps all at once near the ground—reduce incrementally to avoid altitude loss
• A clean go-around demonstrates better judgment than a forced landing, and DPEs evaluate judgment above all