The Go-Around, the Balked Landing, and the Four Things That Have to Happen in the Right Order When You Decide Not to Land

A go-around is a normal, expected maneuver in which you abandon a landing attempt, add full power, and climb away to try again. The two things that matter most are deciding early (before you’re low, slow, and out of runway) and executing four steps in the correct order: power, pitch, flaps, then fly the airplane and clean up. Done on time, a go-around is a complete non-event - and it’s often the single decision that prevents a landing accident.

Why the Go-Around Matters So Much

The go-around is the escape hatch on the most dangerous phase of flight. Year after year, landing accidents sit at the top of the statistics - runway loss of control, hard landings, and overruns.

The frustrating part is how many of those accidents were survivable and avoidable non-events. In a large number of cases, the airplane was fine and the runway was fine. The pilot simply forced a landing the airplane was trying to tell them wasn’t going to work.

A go-around is not an admission that you botched the approach. It’s evidence that you’re smart enough not to double down on a bad situation. A greased landing after a stabilized approach is nice, but a clean go-around after a lousy approach is the mark of a pilot who’s actually thinking.

When Should I Decide to Go Around?

Decide early - the number one killer isn’t the maneuver, it’s calling it too late. Pilots float and float, hoping the airplane will settle, and finally shove the throttle in two-thirds down a short runway with the stall horn moaning. Now they’re trying to accelerate and climb out of a bad energy state with pavement running out.

The foundation of a good go-around is the stabilized approach. Give yourself a gate at a fixed point - say 500 feet above the ground for a normal approach - and ask a simple question:

• Am I on speed?
• On glidepath?
• On centerline?
• Configured?
• Is the runway going to work?

If the answer to any of those is no, and it’s not fixable right now, you go around. You don’t negotiate or give it one more chance to sort itself out. Decide early and the go-around is routine. Decide late and it becomes the very emergency you were trying to avoid.

Examiners look for exactly this. In the Airman Certification Standards (ACS), the go-around task lives in the landings area of operation, and one of the first risk-management items is a timely decision to abandon the approach. A go-around initiated cleanly from a bad spot is a pass. A salvaged landing that scares your examiner is a bust - even if the wheels ended up on the ground.

What Are the Four Steps of a Go-Around, In Order?

Once you’ve decided, four things have to happen in sequence: Power. Pitch. Flaps. Fly the airplane and clean up the rest.

1. Power

Apply full power, smoothly and deliberately - not a jab or a slam, but without hesitation. In most trainers, a Cessna 172 or a Piper Cherokee, you’re going forward to full throttle. If you have a carbureted engine and pulled carb heat on for the approach, carb heat goes cold as part of the power application so you get full rated power and cool, dense air into the engine. Power comes first because it buys you everything else: time, airspeed, and an end to the descent.

2. Pitch

As the power comes in, pitch up to arrest the descent and establish a climb attitude. Here’s where the airplane fights you. Shoving the throttle forward in a high-wing trainer makes the nose want to pitch up hard on its own - the power-pitch couple. Let it happen unchecked and you’ll be staring at the sky with the airspeed bleeding off.

You’ll need forward pressure on the yoke to hold a reasonable climb attitude, because the airplane is trimmed for a slow, nose-high approach. Set an attitude that gives you your best rate of climb speed (Vy), or at least a safe positive climb, and hold it with pressure. Fly the attitude with your hand first, then trim the pressure off - don’t chase the trim first.

3. Flaps

This is the one that quietly hurts people: do not dump all your flaps at once. Retract them in stages. Those flaps are producing lift at a low airspeed, and yanking them all up in one motion can drop you right back onto the runway - or into the ground - because you just threw away the lift holding you up.

The flow is full power, positive climb attitude, then milk the flaps up incrementally. In a Cessna, that often looks like full flaps to 20, verify you’re climbing and accelerating, then 20 to 10, then clean up the rest as the airspeed comes alive and you have altitude to spare.

The ACS mirrors this: establish a positive climb, then retract flaps as appropriate, then retract the landing gear (if retractable) after a positive rate of climb is established. Positive rate first, always. Configuration changes come after the airplane is clearly going up.

4. Fly the Airplane and Manage the Rest

Once you’re climbing, on speed, and cleaning up, handle the housekeeping. Sidestep - don’t climb straight up the middle of the runway, because there may be an airplane down there you were about to land on top of. Move to the side, typically the right side of the runway in the U.S., so you can keep conflicting traffic in sight off your left and you’re not directly over anyone.

Make your radio call - “going around” - clear and simple, so everyone in the pattern knows what you’re doing. Then fly a normal climb out and re-enter the pattern like it never happened.

A Real Scenario: Traffic Still on the Runway

You’re at a non-towered field on a busy Saturday, number two to land behind a slow Cub. You’re on final at 400 feet, closing in, and the Cub is still on the runway taking his time to taxi clear.

The wrong move is what your gut wants: slow down, drag it in, add a little power, S-turn - anything to buy time and still land. Now you’re low, slow, distracted, and staring at the guy on the runway instead of flying your airplane. That’s how pilots stall and spin out of an extended base-to-final, or plant it long trying to squeak in behind traffic.

The right move is boring. Power in, pitch for the climb, milk the flaps, sidestep right so you can watch the Cub, key the mic - “going around” - and fly back around the pattern. Cost: three minutes and a little gas. Nobody had a bad moment. That’s a good day of flying, and it should feel completely routine.

What Are the Most Common Go-Around Mistakes?

Mistake 1 - Deciding too late. The one that hurts most. Set your gates and honor them.

Mistake 2 - Timid power. Pilots baby the throttle on approach and then ease it in like they’re afraid of it. Go around means go: full power, smoothly, without delay.

Mistake 3 - Letting the nose balloon. Forget the power-pitch couple and the nose rockets up, airspeed drops, and you’re mushing along nose-high near the ground. Anticipate the pitch-up and push against it.

Mistake 4 - Dumping the flaps all at once. The sink that follows can put you back on the pavement. Stage them up - positive climb first, then incremental retraction.

Mistake 5 - Fixating. You call the go-around and then stare at the airplane on the runway, or at the flap handle, and stop flying. Aviate first, always. The airplane needs somebody flying it every second.

Mistake 6 - Forgetting the trim. An airplane trimmed for approach will fight you with brute arm strength all the way up. Fly the attitude with pressure first, then trim it off so you’re not wrestling the airplane for the next thousand feet.

How Do I Practice Go-Arounds Effectively?

Don’t do just one token go-around with your instructor - do a bunch. Do them from high and from low. Have your instructor call one at 50 feet in the flare, because that’s the ugly one: the balked landing where you’re slow, low, and the airplane is barely flying. That’s exactly where the muscle memory needs to be automatic.

Full power. Push against the nose. Positive climb. Milk the flaps. Fly. Do it enough times that it stops being a big deal - because on the day it counts, it should feel like nothing.

The Mindset That Makes It Automatic

The pilot who goes around isn’t the weak one. It’s the pilot who understood, in real time, that the airplane was writing a check the runway couldn’t cash, and chose to try again. There’s no trophy for salvaging a bad approach - just the risk you didn’t have to take.

Commit to it before you need it. Decide now, on the ground where it’s easy, that going around is always on the table and that you’ll never be too proud or too stubborn to firewall the throttle and try again - so you don’t have to make that decision at 400 feet where it’s hard.

The go-around task is short, and both the FAA Airman Certification Standards and the Airplane Flying Handbook spell out exactly what a good one looks like. It’s worth reading for yourself.

Key Takeaways

• A go-around is a normal maneuver, not an emergency - and it’s often the decision that prevents a landing accident.
• Decide early. Set a gate (e.g., 500 feet AGL): if you’re not on speed, on glidepath, on centerline, configured, with the runway assured, go around.
• Execute in order: power, pitch, flaps, fly. Full power, push against the power-pitch couple, and retract flaps in stages - never all at once.
• Establish a positive climb before changing configuration, then sidestep (usually to the right), make your radio call, and re-enter the pattern.
• Practice go-arounds from high, low, and in the flare until the sequence is automatic.