The Go-Around: The Most Important Maneuver Nobody Wants to Practice

A go-around is the decision to abandon a landing approach, climb back to traffic pattern altitude, and fly the circuit again. It is not a failure. It is one of the most important safety decisions a pilot can make, and it is dramatically under-practiced in private pilot training.

What Is a Go-Around, Really?

A go-around means adding power, establishing a positive rate of climb, reconfiguring the airplane, and flying another lap. The concept is simple. The mental barrier is not.

Student pilots resist the go-around because it feels like an admission of something - that the approach was bad, that the skill wasn’t there, that everyone in the pattern is watching. None of that framing is accurate. Every airline crew executes go-arounds. Every seasoned instrument pilot makes them. A clean, well-timed go-around is evidence of good aeronautical decision-making, not poor flying.

When Should You Go Around?

The most reliable framework is the stabilized approach concept. By 500 feet above the ground in visual conditions, your airplane should meet all of the following criteria:

• In the landing configuration
• On the correct airspeed
• On the correct glide path
• Aligned with the runway centerline

500 feet is your gate. If you cross that altitude still chasing airspeed, still correcting centerline, or still adjusting your glide path, go around. Do not attempt to fix it lower. The math works against you: a correction that takes five seconds at 500 feet still leaves workable altitude. That same correction at 50 feet leaves nothing.

Beyond the 500-foot gate, several situations demand an immediate go-around regardless of how good the approach looks:

• Traffic on the runway - any aircraft, vehicle, or obstacle occupying the runway you intend to use
• A controller instruction to go around - execute first, acknowledge on the radio, sort out details in the air
• Sudden airspeed loss or wind shear on short final - if the bottom drops out, get out
• A runway incursion - another aircraft entering your runway without a clearance
• Your own instincts - if something feels wrong and you can’t immediately identify what it is, go around. Pilot instincts process inputs the conscious mind hasn’t caught up to yet. A go-around costs roughly four minutes. Ignoring that feeling costs far more.

How Do You Execute a Go-Around Correctly?

The sequence in a typical training aircraft - Cessna 172, Piper Cherokee, Diamond DA-20 - follows three steps in order: power, attitude, configuration.

Power first. Apply full throttle smoothly and deliberately. Some instructors recommend saying “going around” aloud - it commits the decision and cues anyone else in the cockpit. As power comes in, expect strong left-turning tendencies from torque and P-factor. Right rudder is not optional. Apply it smoothly and firmly to keep the nose tracking straight.

Attitude second. Establish a slightly nose-high pitch attitude to stop the descent and transition into a climb. You are not trying to climb steeply - you are trying to arrest the sink and let airspeed build. Think of a normal climb attitude in a Cessna 172.

Configuration third - and carefully. If you’re carrying full flaps, do not retract them all at once. Full flaps produce significant lift alongside their drag. Pulling them all up at once near the ground can cause a temporary sink while airspeed hasn’t yet built to compensate. The correct technique is to retract from full to an intermediate setting (approximately 10 degrees), establish a positive climb, let airspeed build, then continue retracting. Always follow your aircraft’s Pilot Operating Handbook - this procedure varies by airplane.

Once established in a positive climb, retractable-gear aircraft raise the gear, and you fly the standard pattern: upwind, crosswind, downwind, and back around for another approach. Announce the go-around on tower or unicom frequency: “Cessna four five seven Sierra, going around.”

What About a Ballooned Landing or a Bounce?

These scenarios catch student pilots off guard because the instinct is to salvage the landing. That instinct can be dangerous.

A ballooned landing happens when the flare generates lift instead of settling the airplane onto the runway. If the balloon is significant and airspeed is decaying, pushing the nose down risks a hard, uncontrolled touchdown followed by a worse bounce. The correct response: apply power and go around cleanly.

A significant bounce follows the same logic. If you’ve come back into the air with uncertainty about your energy state and remaining runway, go around. A small bounce on speed with plenty of runway remaining is a different situation - use your judgment. When in doubt, go around.

What Does the ACS Require for the Checkride?

The Airman Certification Standards (ACS) lists go-arounds and rejected landings as a specific evaluated task. Examiners assess four things:

1. Timely decision-making - not a last-ditch reaction, but an appropriate call made and executed promptly
2. Proper technique - power in, right rudder, pitch established, flaps retracted per the POH, correct climb speed achieved and maintained
3. Pattern work after the go-around - appropriate wind correction, proper altitudes, standard traffic pattern spacing
4. Communication - the go-around is announced at towered airports and on unicom

Many examiners will deliberately engineer an unstabilized approach or call traffic on the runway specifically to evaluate your decision-making. They are not expecting a perfect landing every time. They are watching whether you recognize the problem, make the call at the right moment, and execute it correctly. The applicant who forces a bad approach demonstrates poor judgment. The applicant who goes around cleanly demonstrates exactly the aeronautical decision-making the ACS is designed to test.

How Should You Practice Go-Arounds?

Dedicated practice makes go-arounds automatic. Rather than treating them as incidental events during landing practice, build sessions specifically around them.

Practice initiating go-arounds at different points: from a quarter-mile final, from 100 feet abeam the numbers, and from the flare itself. Each requires a slightly different response and builds different muscle memory. The maneuver needs to be reflexive, not deliberated.

Brief yourself before every approach. Turning final, state explicitly: “If I’m not stabilized by 500 feet, I’m going around. If there’s anything on the runway, I’m going around.” Deciding the criteria before you need them removes hesitation at the moment that matters.

A useful mental model: treat the runway as a destination you are not committed to until you are in the flare with a reasonable expectation of a safe touchdown. Before that moment, the go-around is always available. The runway will still be there after one more lap.

Key Takeaways

• 500 feet AGL is your stabilized approach gate in visual conditions - if the approach isn’t set by then, go around without trying to fix it lower
• The go-around sequence is power, attitude, configuration - right rudder for left-turning tendencies, flaps retracted incrementally per the POH
• Never retract full flaps all at once near the ground; reduce to an intermediate setting first and let airspeed build
• A ballooned landing or significant bounce is a go-around situation - don’t try to force the airplane back onto the runway
• The ACS evaluates go-arounds specifically; a clean go-around demonstrates good judgment, not failure
• Brief your go-around criteria before every approach, and practice the maneuver at multiple points in the pattern

Reference: FAA Airplane Flying Handbook and the Airman Certification Standards cover go-around technique and checkride requirements in detail.