The Go-Around, the Balked Landing, and Why the Hardest Part of the Maneuver Is Deciding to Do It

A go-around is a normal, planned maneuver in which you abandon an unstable or unsafe approach, apply full power, climb away, and set up a better landing. It is not an emergency or a sign of failure - it is the professional response to an approach that isn’t working. The hardest part of the maneuver isn’t the flying; it’s making the decision to commit before it’s too late.

What Is a Go-Around, and Why Isn’t It an Emergency?

The go-around - also called the balked landing or rejected landing - simply means you’ve judged that the current approach won’t produce a safe landing, so you stop, climb, and try again.

That’s the entire philosophy. The airplane isn’t telling you that you’re a bad pilot. You’re making a planned, professional decision that this approach isn’t good enough, and a better one is worth ninety seconds and another lap around the pattern.

Get your head around that mindset before you ever touch the throttle. The pilots who get hurt are almost never the ones who go around. They’re the ones who convince themselves they can salvage a landing that was already lost.

The Real Danger: The Voice That Says “I’ve Got This”

Picture yourself on short final. You came in a little fast and a little high, and now you’re floating. The runway is sliding underneath you, the touchdown zone is already behind you, and a voice in your head says: No, I can save it. I can grease it on right here.

That voice is the most dangerous voice in the traffic pattern. The pilot who tries to rescue a bad landing is the one who touches down long and fast, bounces, porpoises, or runs off the far end.

Put the decision on a scale. Choosing to go around costs you time and a little pride. Choosing to force a bad landing can cost you the airplane. It isn’t a close call.

When Should I Go Around? Setting Your Gates

Make the decision easy by setting your gates before you ever turn final. Ask what has to be true for this landing to happen:

• I’m on speed.
• I’m on centerline, or I can clearly get there.
• I’m on a stable descent to my touchdown zone.
• The runway is clear.
• My gear is down (if you fly retractable).

If any one of those is a no and you can’t quickly fix it, you go around. You don’t debate it on short final - you decided the rules on downwind, so now you’re just reading the answer.

Here’s a hard number to hang onto: if your mains haven’t touched down in the first third of the runway, go around. Full power, climb away. That single rule has saved more airplanes than any advanced technique.

What Is the Correct Go-Around Sequence?

The go-around is three actions, always in this order: Power. Pitch. Flaps. (Some instructors say power, attitude, configuration - same thing.)

1. Power. Advance smoothly but deliberately to full. Don’t slam it and make the engine stumble, but don’t baby it either - you need that energy now.

2. Pitch. As power comes up, expect the nose to pitch up and yaw left. That’s torque and P-factor arriving together. Feed in a bootful of right rudder and pitch for a positive climb attitude that gets you to Vy (best rate of climb), or Vx if you have an obstacle. Arrest the descent, establish the climb.

3. Flaps. Only now do you touch the flaps - and never dump them all at once. Retracting from full to zero while slow and low can cost you the lift they were providing and settle you back onto the pavement. Milk them up in stages. In a Cessna 172, that’s typically full to 20 degrees, let it accelerate and climb, then 20 to 10, then clean up once you have speed and altitude. Match your airplane’s checklist, but the principle is universal: retract in increments and let the airplane accelerate between them.

If you fly retractable gear, the gear comes up last - once you have a positive rate and you’re certain you’re climbing.

Then fly the airplane: reacquire the extended centerline, sidestep to the right if you’re on a parallel runway so you can keep traffic in sight, and make your radio call. The radio call is last. Aviate, navigate, communicate. Nobody ever bent an airplane by making a go-around call two seconds late - plenty have by grabbing the mic instead of the throttle.

What Does an Examiner Look For on a Checkride?

The go-around lives in the FAA Airman Certification Standards (ACS), and your examiner will test it - sometimes briefed, sometimes by simply calling “go around” in the middle of a nice approach to see what you do.

They aren’t grading grace. They’re grading two things:

• A timely decision. When the runway is blocked or the examiner calls for it, they want to see you commit - not sit and think while the airplane keeps sinking.
• The correct sequence. Power, pitch, flaps, in order, with the right rudder to match.

No examiner in the country has ever failed a pilot for going around when they weren’t sure. They fail the ones who pressed on.

How Do I Handle a Go-Around at a Towered Field?

Imagine you’re a student pilot around fifteen hours in, doing pattern work at a towered field for the first time. On final, the tower says the aircraft ahead is slow to clear - go around. Your heart rate doubles.

The trap is freezing and staring at the runway while the airplane keeps descending toward traffic. Don’t be that pilot. The instant you hear “go around” - or decide it yourself - your hand is already moving. Power, pitch, flaps. Fly away first, then sort out your emotions at pattern altitude where you have room to breathe. The ground is what hurts you, so the first move is always to stop going toward it.

The Go-Around Nobody Calls for You

The one that truly saves lives is the go-around you initiate yourself. Everything looks fine - you’re on final, on speed - and then a gust drops a wing, wind shear saps your airspeed, a deer wanders out, or the airplane ahead takes forever to clear.

No tower, no instructor, no examiner will make this call. It’s just you and your gates. Practice giving yourself permission, not only the mechanics.

Go up and do go-arounds until they’re boring: from 500 feet, from 50 feet, from the flare right after the wheels chirp and you don’t like the bounce. Do them until your hand knows the sequence before your brain finishes the sentence. The goal is a reflex, not a first-time decision made under stress.

Don’t Let the Hobbs Meter Make the Decision

Flying is expensive, and there’s real pressure whispering that every go-around is another few minutes on the Hobbs and another twenty or thirty dollars you didn’t plan to spend. That pressure is real - and it’s exactly the wrong math.

A lap around the pattern is nothing. A prop strike, a collapsed nose gear, or a runway excursion is your whole training budget gone and then some - and that’s if everyone walks away. The go-around is the cheapest insurance you’ll ever buy. The airplane doesn’t know what fuel costs; it only knows physics.

Four Common Go-Around Mistakes to Avoid

1. The late decision. Deciding at ten feet what you should have decided at 500. Set your gates early.
2. The flap dump. Grabbing flaps before power is in and the climb is established, or retracting them all at once. Power, pitch, then flaps in stages.
3. Forgetting the rudder. Full power at low speed yaws you left; without right rudder you’ll skid, and a skid down low is how a stall becomes a spin. Your right foot goes in as the throttle goes forward.
4. Not going around when you should. Landing long, landing fast, accepting a bounce. When in doubt, go around - it is always the right answer.

The specifics here come straight from the FAA’s Airman Certification Standards and the Airplane Flying Handbook, both free on the FAA website. Read the go-around section for whatever certificate you’re chasing - it’s short and worth your time.

Your homework for the next flight: go do three go-arounds you didn’t have to do. Make them boring, because the day you actually need one, you want it to be the most familiar thing in the world.

Key Takeaways

• A go-around is a normal, planned maneuver, not an emergency or a failure.
• Set your gates before turning final - on speed, on centerline, stable descent, clear runway, gear down - and go around if any gate fails.
• If your mains aren’t down in the first third of the runway, go around.
• The sequence is always Power, Pitch, Flaps, with right rudder to counter yaw and flaps retracted in stages.
• The hardest and most life-saving skill is deciding to go around - practice it until it’s a reflex.