The Go-Around, the Balked Landing, and Why Pushing the Throttle Up Beats Trying to Save a Bad Approach

SUMMARY: A go-around is not a failed landing - it’s the second good ending to every approach. Here’s how to fly it safely and pass your checkride.

A go-around is a planned outcome of every approach, not a failure. When a landing doesn’t feel right - an aircraft on the runway, an unstable approach, or a bad bounce - the safest move is to smoothly add full power and climb back into the pattern to try again. The maneuver follows a memorized sequence, Cram, Climb, Clean, Call, and getting that order right is what keeps a low-altitude power-up from turning into a stall.

Why a Go-Around Is a Win, Not a Failure

Somewhere in training, many pilots absorb a quiet belief that going around means they messed up - that a “real” pilot would have salvaged the landing, and that the instructor will be disappointed. That belief has killed people.

Every approach you fly has two possible endings, and a completed landing is only one of them. The other is a confident push of the throttle and a climb back into the pattern. Both are wins. Neither is an emergency.

The go-around is something you brief before you ever turn final. When you treat it as one of two normal outcomes, you remove the hesitation that makes it dangerous.

What Are the Steps of a Go-Around?

The memory aid most instructors teach is Cram, Climb, Clean, Call, Cool. The order matters enormously, because doing these out of sequence is exactly where pilots get hurt.

Cram - Throttle goes full forward, smoothly but without hesitation. You’re trading descent for climb energy, and that energy comes from the engine. In most training airplanes, push the carburetor heat back to cold as you add power, because carb heat robs you of horsepower you now want every bit of.

Climb - Pitch for your climb attitude and hold it. Not a rocket ship - the attitude that gives a positive rate at a safe airspeed, typically your best rate of climb speed (V_Y) or close to it depending on obstacles. Look outside, set the attitude on the horizon, and feed in enough right rudder to keep the ball centered.

Clean - Now, and only now, deal with the flaps. Bring them up in stages, not all at once.

Cool and Call - Cool means watching engine temperatures, cowl flaps if you have them, especially on a hot day and a hard climb. Call means telling the tower (or announcing on the common frequency at a non-towered field) what you’re doing.

Notice where the radio call lands: last. Aviate, navigate, communicate. You fly the airplane first, every time.

Why Does an Airplane Pitch and Yaw So Hard on a Go-Around?

When you jam the throttle forward in a single-engine airplane - especially a high-wing trainer with a big flap setting hanging out - the nose pitches up hard and the aircraft yaws left as all the left-turning tendencies wake up at once.

If you’re not ready with right rudder and a firm hand on the pitch, the airplane will zoom, bleed off speed, and put you on the edge of a stall a hundred feet off the ground.

That is the accident: full power, nose way up, airspeed decaying, low altitude, and a wing about to quit. It happens because the pilot added the power but didn’t fly the airplane through what the power did. Adding power is not the maneuver. Flying the airplane through the power change is the maneuver.

Why Should I Retract Flaps in Stages?

If you’re carrying full flaps - 40 degrees in some trainers - do not reach over and dump them all at once. Those flaps are producing lift right now. Retract them all in one grab while you’re slow and low, and the airplane will settle and sink back toward the ground at the worst possible moment.

Instead, raise the first notch once you’ve confirmed a positive climb, let the airplane accelerate, and continue bringing them up incrementally as airspeed builds and the checklist calls for it. Fly the airplane, then clean it up - in that order, always.

What Are the Most Common Go-Around Mistakes?

The late decision. The pilot floats down the runway, high and fast, thinking “I can still make this work.” Half the pavement is gone, and they keep waiting. The truth: a go-around started early is easy; one started late is a scramble. The decision costs you nothing when you make it with runway ahead and airspeed in your pocket. Made deep down the runway from a low-energy state, it becomes genuinely dangerous.

The reluctant go-around. The pilot finally decides to go around but does it halfway - kind of adds power, kind of holds the airplane off, still mentally arguing about whether they had to. A half-committed go-around is worse than none, because the airplane is now in an in-between state at the bottom of its energy. When you decide, you decide. The moment the decision is made, the landing is over.

The go-around from the bounce. You touch down a little fast or flat and bounce back into the air, floating, nose up, airspeed decaying. If the bounce is anything more than tiny, going around is very often the safest move - but you must be gentle and deliberate, because you’re slow and near a stall. Smooth power, control the pitch, don’t over-rotate. A panicked yank on the yoke invites a harder second bounce or a stall. Nobody has ever salvaged the third bounce.

How Do I Decide When to Go Around?

Set your gates before you land, and say them out loud on final:

• If I’m not on the ground in the first third of the runway, I go around.
• If the approach isn’t stable by 500 feet, I go around.
• If anything surprises me, I go around and sort it out from a thousand feet in the pattern, where I have time, altitude, and options.

Pick the number. Say it out loud. Then honor it.

What Does the Examiner Look for on the Checkride?

The Airman Certification Standards (ACS) includes a specific task for this, called the go-around/rejected landing on the private pilot checkride. The examiner wants to see that you:

• Make the decision promptly, without agonizing.
• Apply full power and establish the proper climb pitch attitude and airspeed.
• Retract flaps as recommended by the manufacturer - in stages, not all at once.
• Maintain positive control through the pitch and yaw change.
• Track the runway centerline and its extension.
• Hold airspeed within the standard, which for the private pilot is ±5 knots of your target.

But the thing the ACS can’t quite put into words is the thing that matters most: the examiner is looking for a pilot who is comfortable going around - someone who treats it as normal and unremarkable.

A tip: the examiner will often wait until you’re on a nice, stable final and then say “go around.” When you hear those words, your hand should already be moving to the throttle. That prompt, positive response tells the examiner more about you than the maneuver itself.

How Should I Practice Go-Arounds?

Practice it until it’s boring. Practice from a stabilized approach, from high and fast, and from a little slow. Have your instructor call it late, with a simulated airplane on the runway, so you have to react under pressure.

Practice the sight picture of that nose coming up with your feet already on the rudder. When the real one comes - and it will - you want your hands to know the dance before your brain has finished being surprised.

And the honest part: a trip around the pattern costs you a few minutes on the Hobbs and it stings a little. But the willingness to add power and try again is the cheapest insurance you’ll ever buy in an airplane. A go-around costs about eight minutes. The alternative, on a bad day, costs a great deal more.

Key Takeaways

• The go-around is a planned outcome, not a failure - one of two good endings to every approach.
• Fly the sequence in order: Cram, Climb, Clean, Call, Cool. Full power, control pitch and yaw, then retract flaps in stages, then talk on the radio.
• The biggest killer is the late, low-energy go-around - set gates (first third of runway, stable by 500 feet) and honor them.
• Commit fully. A half-hearted go-around leaves the airplane stuck between landing and climbing at its lowest energy.
• On the checkride, the examiner rewards a prompt, comfortable decision - hand on the throttle the instant you hear “go around.”