The Go-Around, Pitch Then Power Then Flaps, and the Landing You Give Up On Before It Ever Goes Bad

A go-around is the decision to discontinue a landing approach and climb away to try again or divert. Fly it in one order every time: pitch to a climb attitude, power to full, then flaps up in stages. The mechanics take an afternoon to learn - the real skill is deciding early, while you still have altitude, airspeed, and options.

What Is a Go-Around, and Why Does It Matter?

A go-around is the decision to break off a landing and climb back up, either to fly the pattern again or to go somewhere else. You’ll also hear it called a balked landing or a rejected landing. The meaning is the same: you were going to land, and now you’re not.

Here’s the mindset shift that matters most. A go-around is not an emergency, not a failure, and not you botching the landing. It is a normal, planned, everyday part of flying. The pilots who treat it that way are the ones who fly long, boring, wonderful careers.

The trouble is that in the moment it feels like admitting defeat. You’ve flown a nice pattern, you’ve got the runway made, and giving it up feels like failing. So you press. And pressing a bad approach into a good landing is one of the most reliable ways to bend an airplane.

The FAA treats this as a skill in its own right. The go-around gets its own dedicated task in the Airman Certification Standards (ACS) - the document your examiner works from on checkride day. The FAA didn’t tuck it into a corner of the landing task; they pulled it out and said this is something you must be able to do on demand.

Why Is the Go-Around Such a Demanding Maneuver?

Two reasons - one psychological, one mechanical.

The psychological one is the reluctance to give up on a landing you feel you’ve almost earned. The mechanical one is that a go-around, done wrong, puts the airplane in one of the most demanding configurations it ever sees - and it does it low and slow, where you have no room for error.

Think about what’s actually happening. You’re near the ground, near your slowest speed of the whole flight, with full flaps hanging out. The nose is high, the power is low, and by design you’re close to the edge of the wing’s ability to fly. Now you’re going to push a piston single to full power - which makes it want to yaw and roll and pitch all at once - and reconfigure the entire airplane a couple hundred feet off the ground.

That’s the maneuver. That’s why we practice it.

How Do I Perform a Go-Around Step by Step?

The order is the whole game: Pitch. Power. Flaps. In that sequence, every time.

Step one: Pitch. The instant you decide, stop the descent and set a normal climb attitude - the same picture you see on a regular departure, not a steep one. You’re arresting the sink and pointing the nose at a spot that gives you a positive rate. Do this before you touch the throttle.

Step two: Power. Smoothly but without dawdling, advance the throttle firmly and completely to full so the engine spools up and pulls. The moment that power comes in, the airplane wants to roll and yaw left - more so down low and slow. Feed in right rudder, keep the nose straight, keep the wings level, and keep the ball centered.

Watch the trap here: as power comes in, the nose wants to rise on its own. Let it, and you’ll end up with a nose so high and a speed so low you’re flirting with a stall a hundred feet up. So in step two you’re actively holding the attitude - pushing forward against the airplane’s desire to rear back. Fly the attitude; don’t let the airplane fly you.

Step three: Flaps. Only now do you clean up the airplane, and you do it in stages, not all at once. This one has killed people. With full flaps, retracting everything in a single motion dumps a big chunk of lift instantly, and the airplane sinks - right back toward the runway you were climbing away from. Instead, bleed the flaps up in increments: an initial notch once you have a positive rate and airspeed that’s alive, let it accelerate, then the next stage, then the last, on your airplane’s published schedule.

In many trainers the flow is: full power, flaps to an intermediate setting right away to shed the biggest drag penalty, establish and verify a positive climb, then milk the rest up as you accelerate. Every airplane is different - a Cessna 172 does it one way, a Piper another. Learn the specific numbers and sequence from your Pilot’s Operating Handbook (POH), not from a buddy.

Why Pitch First and Not Power First?

This is what separates a pilot who memorized a checklist from one who understands the airplane.

If you lead with power, that pitch-up tendency takes over. Full power on a nose that’s already high, at approach speed, rotates the airplane up faster than you expect - and now you’re chasing the nose back down while you’re low and slow. Every second behind the airplane is a second closer to the ground or the stall.

Setting pitch first means you’ve already told the airplane where the nose belongs. When the power comes in, you’re holding a picture you already own instead of reacting to one that’s running away from you.

When Should I Decide to Go Around?

Two scenarios show the difference.

The easy one: you’re on final, the airplane ahead is slow to clear, and the tower says “go around, traffic on the runway.” Clean situation. Pitch, power, flaps, sidestep to the right to keep the runway and traffic in sight, tell the tower, and fly the pattern again. No drama.

The hard one: nobody tells you. There’s no tower, no traffic, nothing wrong outside - the problem is inside the cockpit. You came in ten knots hot because the wind was gusting, then the gust quit. Now you’re floating, eating up pavement, and the far end is coming at you. Nobody makes this decision for you. The pilot who says “going around” out loud walks away every time. The pilot who says “I’ve almost got it” is the one we read about.

The mechanics are learnable in an afternoon. The hard part is the trigger - deciding early, while you still have altitude, airspeed, and options, instead of late when you’ve floated halfway down the runway.

How Do I Set Personal Go-Around Triggers?

Decide the rules before you’re in the situation. On downwind, before you turn base, set your personal gates:

• If I’m not stabilized by 500 feet, I go around.
• If I’m floating past my chosen touchdown zone, I go around.
• If a gust drops a wing and I’m not sure I can fix it, I go around.
• If it just feels wrong, I go around.

You decide all of that when you’re calm and level with all the time in the world, so that when the moment comes you’re not making a fresh decision under pressure - you’re executing a rule you already agreed to.

That’s what a stabilized approach really buys you. It’s not about being pretty; it’s a clean, simple checklist: on glide path, on speed, on centerline, configured, trimmed. If the picture holds, you land. If it breaks, you go. No negotiation with yourself.

What Does the Examiner Look for on a Checkride?

There’s no mystery - the ACS spells it out. Your examiner wants to see:

• A timely decision - the go-around called for, made, and the airplane climbing, not four seconds of thinking while it keeps sinking.
• The pitch, power, flaps sequence in the right order, cleaned up on schedule, never sinking back toward the runway.
• Directional control - right rudder as power comes in, tracking straight, wings level, not skidding toward the runway edge.
• Flying runway heading (or a sidestep to the right to keep conflicting traffic in view) and the appropriate radio call if you’re talking to anyone.
• A positive rate of climb, airspeed under control, and a smooth transition back into the pattern.

Expect the examiner to call for it at the worst-feeling moment - low, right over the numbers, in the flare, when you’re sure you’re about to grease it. That’s the point: they want to see you switch from landing brain to climbing brain instantly, where the airplane is slowest, lowest, and least forgiving. Practice it there. Have your CFI call “go around” at random on a normal landing so your hands and feet learn the sequence without your conscious brain looking it up.

The Mindset That Carries the Mechanics

A go-around is free. It costs a few gallons of avgas and five minutes of your day. A forced landing off a floated, fast, salvaged approach can cost you the airplane - or far more. Weighed against everything you’re carrying in that cockpit, the math is never close.

The best pilots go around more than the rest of us, not less. They just do it early, before it ever looks dramatic from the ground. Make it a tool you reach for without shame or hesitation, not a bailout you scramble for at the last second.

Pitch. Power. Flaps. Decide early. Fly the airplane. The procedures here come straight from the FAA’s Airman Certification Standards and the Airplane Flying Handbook - read the go-around task yourself before your next lesson.

Key Takeaways

• Fly the sequence in order every time: pitch, power, then flaps. Set a climb attitude first, add full power while holding that attitude, then retract flaps in stages.
• Pitch before power so the airplane can’t run away nose-high while you’re low and slow.
• Never dump full flaps at once - retract in increments on your POH schedule to avoid settling back toward the runway.
• Decide early using preset personal gates (stabilized by 500 feet, no floating past your touchdown zone) so the call is a rule, not an agonizing in-the-moment choice.
• A go-around is a normal maneuver, not a failure - it’s its own ACS checkride task, and it costs only a few gallons of fuel and five minutes.