The Go-Around, the Full-Flap Pitch Trap, and the Checkride Decision That Tells Your Examiner Whether You Belong in the Left Seat

Runway excursions and landing overruns are among the most preventable accidents in general aviation, and a significant share trace back to pilots who had every reason to go around and chose not to. The go-around is learned early, practiced, and then largely forgotten - right up until the moment it actually matters. Understanding this maneuver deeply, not just procedurally but psychologically, is what separates a pilot who executes well under pressure from one who gets lucky.

Why Do Pilots Struggle to Commit to a Go-Around?

The mechanics of a go-around are straightforward. The psychology is where most pilots fail.

A go-around feels like failure. There is an invisible social pressure in the cockpit - an instructor watching, a passenger anxious, a quiet internal voice insisting the landing can still be saved. That voice has contributed to fatal accidents. Pilots have floated past the thousand-foot markers, touched down late, bounced, and tried to salvage landings that should have been abandoned on short final.

The go-around is not failure. It is aeronautical decision making - the smart play, recognized as such by examiners and experienced pilots alike. The only person who sees it as weakness is the pilot who hasn’t been taught otherwise.

When Should You Go Around?

The Airman Certification Standards (ACS) for the private pilot certificate require you to recognize the need for a go-around and execute it promptly - not eventually, not after floating three hundred feet down the runway.

An unstabilized approach is your trigger. If you are high and fast on final with less than 500 feet AGL to work with, that is a go-around. If you cannot get aligned before the numbers, that is a go-around. A gust, a bouncing airspeed, or simple discomfort - those are go-arounds.

The decision window is smaller than most pilots expect. Below approximately 200 feet AGL, your options are shrinking fast. The earlier you make the call, the easier the execution. Waiting until 50 feet means you are executing the maneuver in its most demanding phase.

Make the call early. Make it decisively.

What Is the Correct Go-Around Sequence?

The sequence is where most students make mistakes - not always dangerous ones, but wrong enough for an examiner to notice, and wrong enough to become a real problem under pressure.

In most trainer aircraft, the correct order is:

1. Full power 2. Carb heat off 3. Establish climb attitude 4. Retract flaps incrementally

Not flaps first. Not attitude before power. And never all flaps retracted at once.

What Is the Full-Flap Pitch Trap?

On short final in a trainer, you are slow, configured with full flaps, and not far above stall speed. Full flaps create substantial drag. If you pull back too aggressively after adding power, you climb into that drag before you have the energy to punch through it. With full flaps, a nose too high, and insufficient airspeed, you are dangerously close to a stall at low altitude.

The correct technique: add full power, level the wings, establish a climb attitude, then retract flaps incrementally. Most Pilot Operating Handbooks call for retracting to the intermediate setting first, confirming a positive rate of climb, then retracting fully. Follow your aircraft’s POH - it was written by the people who built your airplane.

On the Cessna 172, the procedure calls for full throttle, carb heat off, flaps to 20 degrees, climb attitude established, then full flap retraction once positive rate and adequate airspeed are confirmed. The Piper Cherokee follows a similar sequence with different flap detents. Know your specific aircraft - your examiner will ask.

What Do You Do With Carb Heat During a Go-Around?

This is one of the most commonly missed steps under pressure.

You are on final with carb heat on - correct practice for a carbureted engine at reduced power. You decide to go around and advance the throttle to full. Carb heat must come off. At full power, a properly functioning carbureted engine does not need carb heat, and warm, less-dense air will cost you power at exactly the moment you need it most.

Turn it off as you advance the throttle. Under pressure with many things happening simultaneously, this small step is easy to skip - and it is precisely the kind of procedural detail the ACS covers and examiners catch.

What Does an Examiner Actually Look for During a Go-Around?

Examiners evaluate five things:

1. Did you recognize that a go-around was needed?
2. Did you make the call promptly, or did you waver?
3. Did you execute the correct sequence for your specific aircraft?
4. Did you maintain directional control and track the runway centerline through the climb?
5. Did you communicate your intentions to the traffic pattern?

The radio call is easy to drop when task saturation is high, but communication is part of the maneuver. At an uncontrolled field, announce on the CTAF: “Cessna two seven five hotel, going around.” At a controlled field, inform the tower. Brief and clear. An examiner who does not hear that call will notice.

Can a Go-Around Actually Help Your Checkride?

Yes - and it may be the best grade you earn all day.

Examiners sometimes allow conditions to be exactly what they are. If an approach is not stabilized, they are watching to see whether the applicant recognizes it. A pilot who catches an unstabilized approach, makes the call, and executes cleanly - full power, carb heat off, flaps incrementally, centerline tracked, radio call made - has demonstrated better aeronautical decision making than one who muscled a greaser out of a compromised approach.

A pilot who floats most of the runway on a hot afternoon, touches down late, bounces, becomes unintentionally airborne, and tries to save it - even if the outcome is technically survivable - has told the examiner something about their judgment that a clean go-around would not have revealed.

When you become airborne after a bounce, that is a go-around situation. Do not push the nose down to force the aircraft back onto the runway. Add power, clean up the aircraft incrementally, climb out, and fly another approach. Every time.

What Pattern Mistakes Set Up an Unstabilized Approach?

Understanding what causes an unstabilized approach matters because the go-around is its response - not a substitute for flying a good pattern.

Improper base-to-final turn is the most common setup error. Overshooting final and trying to correct with a steep bank below pattern altitude is the classic configuration for a low-altitude stall-spin accident. Never exceed 30 degrees of bank in the pattern. If you overshoot, go around, fly a wider circuit, and set it up correctly from the beginning.

Airspeed neglect on final is the other major culprit. Fixating on the runway and failing to cross-check the airspeed indicator leads to arriving at the threshold either too fast - causing floating - or too slow - arriving behind the power curve with the runway coming up before you are ready. The ACS specifies airspeed tolerances for a reason. An examiner watching your airspeed wander 10 to 15 knots in either direction will flag it.

How Should You Pre-Brief Your Go-Around Before Every Approach?

The habit that separates clean go-arounds from hesitant ones is not extra pattern work - it is making the decision before conditions demand it.

Before every approach, establish a personal threshold: “If I am not stabilized by 500 feet AGL, I am going around.” Commit to it. When the moment arrives, you are not deliberating - you are executing a plan already made.

The go-around rewards calm, disciplined thinking. Make the call, execute the procedure, fly the airplane - in that order, in that mindset.

Key Takeaways

• The go-around is aeronautical decision making, not failure. Examiners view a well-executed go-around as evidence of sound judgment, not a shortcoming.
• The correct sequence is power first, then attitude, then flaps incrementally. Never retract all flaps at once from a slow, short-final configuration.
• Carb heat off as you advance the throttle. Warm air costs you power at the worst possible moment.
• Make the call before 200 feet AGL whenever possible. Below that altitude, options narrow rapidly and the maneuver becomes exponentially more demanding.
• Pre-brief your go-around point before every approach. A decision made in advance is a decision made without hesitation.