The Go-Around, the Balked Landing Decision Most Students Delay Too Long, and the Flap Retraction Sequence That Tells the Examiner Everything

The go-around is not a last resort - it is the correct response whenever an approach stops adding up. Private pilot ACS Area of Operation VIII, Task C tests this maneuver as a standalone task, and the examiner is evaluating judgment as much as stick-and-rudder skill. Getting it right means internalizing both the decision trigger and the execution sequence before you sit across from a DPE.

Why Do Most Students Go Around Too Late?

The root problem is a mental model that treats landing as the goal of every approach. It isn’t. Getting the aircraft safely on the ground is the goal - and sometimes that means going around and setting up a better approach.

Students who struggle with go-around timing aren’t usually weak on stick-and-rudder skills. They’ve internalized the idea that a go-around signals failure. That belief is expensive. The continuing unstabilized approach is one of the most reliable accident predictors in general aviation, and it almost always involves a pilot who passed the go-around decision point still trying to fix an approach that wasn’t going to be fixed.

A go-around is a decision. A good one. It is what separates a pilot who is ahead of the aircraft from one being dragged along behind it.

When Should You Decide to Go Around?

Use the stabilized approach concept as your concrete trigger: at 500 feet AGL on a visual approach, the aircraft must be on glide path, at the correct airspeed, in the correct configuration, and in a stable descent. If any of those conditions aren’t met at 500 feet, go around.

Not at 400 feet. Not when you’re certain it won’t work out. At 500 feet, the moment you first recognize the approach isn’t what it should be.

That altitude isn’t arbitrary. Five hundred feet gives you time and energy to transition cleanly from a deteriorating approach into a go-around. Inside 200 feet, you’re in the flare environment - a go-around from down there is a more demanding, more urgent maneuver. Make the decision high, while you still have options.

Apply this trigger broadly:

• If you’ve started to wonder whether you’ll make the runway, go around.
• If you’re correcting more than one thing on final to salvage the approach, go around.
• If the numbers don’t look like the numbers, go around.

What Is the Correct Go-Around Execution Sequence?

The sequence is: full power → carb heat off → establish positive climb attitude → retract flaps incrementally.

The order matters. The most common mistake - in students and experienced pilots alike - is reaching for the flap lever before the power is in.

It seems logical to clean up the aircraft immediately. But pulling flaps back before power is established briefly reduces lift without yet increasing thrust. At 200 feet above the runway, that is exactly the wrong moment to let the aircraft settle.

Power first. Full throttle, decisively, right now. Power arrests the descent and starts building energy. Everything else follows from there.

Carb heat comes off simultaneously with power application, or immediately after. At full power, the engine is running hot, and the warm unfiltered air used to prevent carburetor icing slightly reduces power output. Remove it quickly.

How Do You Retract Flaps During a Go-Around?

Flap retraction must be incremental, not all at once. Each retraction removes drag and also removes lift. Yanking the flaps up in one motion at low airspeed removes a large chunk of lift at the worst possible moment - the aircraft will settle, sometimes noticeably.

The technique for a Cessna 172 with full flaps deployed:

1. Establish climb attitude, let airspeed build toward best angle of climb (Vx)
2. Retract to 20 degrees (first increment)
3. Wait - let airspeed build
4. Retract to 10 degrees
5. Wait again
6. Clean up completely once established in a positive climb with enough altitude to absorb the brief sink from the final increment

Your Pilot’s Operating Handbook is the authority on go-around flap speeds and sequences for your specific aircraft. Know your aircraft’s published procedure before the checkride, not during it.

What Does the Examiner Watch During a Go-Around?

There are five areas where the examiner focuses their attention:

1. Decision timing. Did you recognize the problem and act while you still had altitude and energy? Or did you wait until you were committed to an outcome you couldn’t change?

2. Power application. Full power means full power, applied right now. A tentative push or slow roll-in on the throttle signals that the decision wasn’t fully made before your hand touched the lever.

3. Trim. This is the step most students forget. Full power in a single-engine trainer produces a significant pitch-up tendency from prop thrust and torque. If you don’t trim as you establish the climb, you’ll fight elevator pressure all the way up - altitude control suffers, and the examiner notices every bit of it.

4. Communications. At a towered airport, tell the tower you’re going around promptly and cleanly. At a non-towered airport, announce on the CTAF so everyone in the pattern knows you’re climbing back up. The call doesn’t need to be complicated: “Riverside traffic, Cessna 1234 Alpha, going around Runway 24, Riverside.” Early enough to matter.

5. Pattern reentry. The go-around doesn’t end when you stop climbing. It ends when you’re established back in the pattern flying with intention. Where are you going? How are you rejoining? Are you giving the aircraft behind you enough room? The examiner is still watching through the entire reentry.

How Do I Handle a Bounce on Landing?

There are two wrong responses to a bounce: forcing the nose down to get back on the runway, and freezing. Neither is correct.

If the bounce lifted you noticeably, go around. Here’s why: you’re now airborne at low airspeed with a nose-high attitude, burning runway behind you. Forcing the aircraft back onto the ground risks a hard nose-gear strike, collapse, or a worse secondary skip. The energy state is not a good landing energy state.

A go-around resets the picture. Full power, arrest the nose-drop tendency, establish climb attitude, staged flap retraction - and you’re back in the pattern controlling the variables.

The practical standard: if the bounce lifted you noticeably, go around. If you kissed the runway and barely skipped with solid airspeed and plenty of runway ahead, you may be able to settle it in. If you’re in any doubt at all, go around. Doubt is enough.

How Does Density Altitude Affect Go-Around Performance?

The go-around procedure doesn’t change at a high-elevation airport on a hot day. The aircraft’s performance does.

Climb rate will be reduced. Airspeed will build more slowly after power application. The runway behind you will disappear faster. This has two practical consequences:

First, the go-around decision needs to come earlier at high density altitude. The margin for error is smaller. Second, flap retraction timing must be more patient - the airspeed needed to safely retract to the next increment may take longer to arrive. Don’t rush it.

Know your aircraft’s climb performance on a standard day and on a hot day. Understand the difference, and factor it into your approach planning before you turn final.

A Note on Night Go-Arounds

A go-around in the dark changes the visual picture significantly. The runway lights you were tracking on final disappear from your scan. The black hole of the departure path can create a false impression of your climb angle.

Trust the instruments. Trust the altimeter and the vertical speed indicator. Do not let the absence of a visual horizon convince you that your attitude is something other than what the panel shows. Build the habit of flying the instruments through a go-around before you encounter it at night for the first time.

How Should I Practice Go-Arounds Before the Checkride?

Practice go-arounds from every configuration your instructor will allow - from the flare, from short final, and from a perfectly stabilized approach where everything looks right. That last one is important: practice the go-around when you don’t need to, so the maneuver lives in your hands instead of on a checklist.

Practice the flap transition until the timing, the increments, and the attitude through each stage are automatic - hands-automatic, not checklist-automatic.

Practice in crosswinds. A go-around in a crosswind requires you to track the extended runway centerline as you climb, correct for drift, and stay coordinated while managing power and flaps simultaneously. Practice this before the checkride, not on it.

Practice the radio call when you’re not in the aircraft. Say it out loud a few times so it comes out clean when workload is high.

Ask your instructor for go-around scenarios from situations that aren’t obvious. Not the gentle setup where the problem is clear - approaches where you have to recognize the issue yourself, call it without prompting, and fly it out. That is the real skill the examiner is testing.

Key Takeaways

• A go-around is not a failure - it is the correct decision whenever an approach doesn’t meet stabilized criteria by 500 feet AGL
• Power first, always. Reaching for the flaps before the throttle is the most common execution error
• Flap retraction is incremental - removing flaps all at once at low airspeed can cause a dangerous sink
• The examiner evaluates five things: decision timing, power application, trim use, radio calls, and pattern reentry
• Doubt is enough. If you’re wondering whether to go around, that question is your answer