The Go-Around, the Balked Landing, and the ACS Task Oshkosh Controllers Will Make You Fly for Real

A go-around is not a failed landing - it’s a successful decision to not land when landing was a bad idea. The procedure follows a fixed sequence: full power, positive climb pitch, staged flap retraction, right rudder for coordination, then reintegrate into the traffic pattern. It’s a required task on the FAA private pilot checkride under the Airman Certification Standards (ACS), and it’s one of the most frequently issued instructions at AirVenture Oshkosh, where controllers manage the busiest tower operation in the world.

Why Is the Go-Around So Important at Oshkosh?

Picture the arrival: you’ve flown down the railroad tracks from Ripon, rocked your wings over Fisk, and a controller has assigned you a runway and a colored dot to aim for. You’re one airplane in a conga line of a hundred others funneling toward Wittman Regional Airport.

The spacing is tight. The airplane ahead is slow to clear, or someone lands long, and the controller - who sees the whole picture in a way you can’t from the cockpit - keys up and sends you around.

You don’t argue. You don’t finish the landing. You go. Oshkosh controllers move more traffic in an afternoon than most towers see in a month, and the entire operation works only because pilots do what they’re asked, immediately and without drama.

Is a Go-Around a Failure?

No - and reframing this in your head is one of the most valuable things you can do as a pilot. The feeling that you “blew it” sneaks in because you flew a whole approach, got close to the ground, and now you’re climbing away to do it again.

Flip it. A go-around is you succeeding at not landing when landing was a bad idea. The pilot who goes around from a bad approach is the pilot who goes home. The pilot who tries to salvage a landing that was never going to work is the one who ends up in the accident report.

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

Under pressure, you don’t want to be inventing the procedure. You want a flow burned into your hands. Here’s the sequence:

Step 1 - Power. Apply full power smoothly and immediately. Whether you’re flying a Cessna 172, a Piper Cherokee, or a Cirrus, the throttle goes forward first. This stops the descent, buys you energy, and commits the airplane to flying.

Step 2 - Pitch. Set a positive climb attitude - not straight up. The airplane is slow and dirty with flaps hanging out. Yank the nose skyward and you’ll trade what little airspeed you have for altitude you can’t afford. Set the climb attitude and let the airplane accelerate.

Step 3 - Configuration cleanup. Retract flaps in stages, never all at once. In most training airplanes, bring the flaps from full to an intermediate setting first. Let the airplane accelerate and establish a climb, then milk the rest of the flaps up as airspeed builds.

Step 4 - Gear (if retractable). Raise the landing gear only after you’ve confirmed a positive rate of climb on the altimeter and vertical speed indicator. The rhythm: flaps to intermediate, positive rate confirmed, gear up, keep accelerating, flaps the rest of the way up.

Why Retract Flaps in Stages?

Because flaps are lift. Dump all your flaps at once while you’re heavy, slow, and low, and the airplane can settle right back toward the runway just as you’re trying to climb away from it. That sinking feeling with the ground rushing up is exactly the moment you were trying to escape. Bring the flaps up in steps and the airplane keeps flying the whole time.

Why Does the Go-Around Bust Checkrides?

It’s not the stick and rudder - the airplane will fly the maneuver just fine. It busts pilots because of the decision and because of the rudder.

The rudder: When you shove the throttle to the firewall in a single-engine airplane, all of the left-turning tendency comes alive at once. You’re slow, at high power, and at a high angle of attack - the exact recipe for a stall-spin if the ball slides out and the nose comes up. The instant your hand pushes the throttle forward, your right foot pushes too. Power and right rudder are the same motion. Keep the ball centered.

The decision: The examiner is looking for the pilot who commits. When the picture is wrong, you go, and you go now - you don’t spend 300 feet of altitude negotiating with yourself.

What Does the ACS Require for a Go-Around?

The FAA publishes the Airman Certification Standards (ACS), which include a private pilot task called go-around/rejected landing. On your checkride, the examiner is looking for:

• A prompt decision - not three seconds late while you talk yourself into it
• Correct pitch, power, and configuration in the right order
• Coordinated flight - that right rudder
• Climbing at the correct airspeed, usually best rate of climb (Vy) once cleaned up
• Maneuvering back to the runway or pattern while accounting for other traffic

That last item matters. A go-around doesn’t happen in an empty sky - you just added an airplane back into the pattern. Offset to the side of the runway that gives you the best view of the traffic you’re avoiding, keep the runway in sight, and fit yourself back into the flow. At a tower field, you coordinate with the controller. At a non-towered field, you’re talking on the radio and looking outside.

When Should I Decide to Go Around?

The moment you catch yourself gambling on what another airplane is going to do, the answer is go around.

Here’s the classic scenario: You’re on final. The airplane in front is slow, and as you come over the numbers you can see it’s still on the runway, not yet clear. Your brain starts doing math - they’ll probably be off by the time I touch down. Probably. If I just float a little, it’ll work out.

That word probably is your cue. You do not land behind traffic that’s still on the runway and hope. Add the power, climb, fly the pattern, and come back. That’s not timidity - that’s command.

How Should I Practice Go-Arounds?

Fly them until they’re boring. Specifically:

• Fly go-arounds from a stabilized approach
• Fly them from an ugly approach - high and fast, which is a real reason to go around too
• Fly one from a deliberately low, slow, dragged-in setup so you feel how the airplane sinks if you rush the flaps. Learn the sink. Respect it.

Practice the decision, not just the mechanics. Set personal gates and say them out loud on every approach: If I’m not stabilized by 500 feet, I go around. If the runway isn’t clear, I go around. If it doesn’t feel right, I go around and sort it out with altitude under me. Say it every time until the words fly the airplane for you.

What Are the Most Common Go-Around Mistakes?

1. Slow throttle. People ease the power in like they’re afraid of it. You want that power now - smoothly but decisively. Half power gets you a mushy half climb, and a mushy half climb near the ground is not where you want to live.

2. Fighting the trim. You were trimmed nose-up for a slow descent. Add full power against that trim and the nose wants to pitch way up on its own. Physically push the nose down to the climb attitude, then trim off the pressure as you get established. This surprises students every time and is worst in airplanes with the most powerful trim.

3. Fixation. You went around and you’re so rattled you fly into the next problem - you forget to talk, forget to look for traffic, climb straight into someone else’s departure path. Remember: aviate, navigate, communicate, in that order, even with your heart rate up.

4. The go-around you don’t accept. The controller says go around and some part of you wants to say no, I’ve got it. You cannot argue your way onto a runway. When the tower sends you around, you go - cleanly and immediately.

Why This Matters for Every Pilot

The go-around is the maneuver that connects everything else in aviation safety. It’s aeronautical decision making with your hands on the controls - the physical expression of the word no. Every safe pilot has a hair trigger on the go-around, and every one of them can tell you about a day it kept them out of the accident report.

Build that trigger now, while it’s cheap, in the practice area with your instructor - instead of learning it expensive over the numbers. And before you point the nose at Wisconsin, read this year’s AirVenture NOTAM cover to cover; the arrival procedures are spelled out in detail there, and the go-around sequence and coordination standards come straight from the FAA’s ACS.

Key Takeaways

• A go-around is a success, not a failure - it’s the decision to not land when landing was unsafe.
• The sequence is fixed: full power, positive climb pitch, staged flap retraction, gear up after positive rate, and constant right rudder for coordination.
• Retract flaps in stages, never all at once, so the airplane doesn’t settle back toward the runway.
• It’s a required ACS checkride task - examiners grade the promptness of your decision as much as your stick-and-rudder work.
• At Oshkosh, go-arounds are routine. When the tower sends you around, comply immediately and without argument.