The go-around you should have called two seconds ago and the checkride saves that start with full power and a plan

The go-around is one of the most common reasons student pilots fail checkrides and one of the most frequent links in general aviation accident chains. The maneuver itself is straightforward — five steps executed in order — but the real challenge is deciding to go around before it’s too late. A well-timed go-around is not a failure. It is the single best demonstration of pilot judgment you can make on a checkride or any other day.

What Does the FAA Expect on the Checkride?

The Airman Certification Standards (ACS) for Private Pilot list the go-around as a required task under the normal and crosswind landing section. The examiner evaluates two things: timely recognition that the approach is not working and a smooth, coordinated transition from descent to climb.

“Timely” is the word that catches students off guard. It does not mean fifty feet above the runway wondering whether you’ll touch down in the first third. It means the moment you recognize the approach is unstabilized.

What Does an Unstabilized Approach Look Like?

Three common scenarios every student should recognize:

Carrying excess airspeed. You’re on final for runway 27, carrying an extra ten knots because the wind was gusty earlier. You cross the threshold and the airplane won’t settle. You float past the thousand-foot markers, still in ground effect, burning runway.

Blown off centerline. A crosswind has pushed you off center. Your correction puts you in a crab, and now you’re trying to transition to a sideslip at 200 feet AGL with a rapidly increasing workload. You’re behind the airplane.

High and steep after a tight base-to-final turn. You pull power to idle and push the nose over. Now you’re fast, steep, airspeed building, pointed at the runway with no stabilized glide path.

In every one of these scenarios, the correct answer is the same: go around.

What Is the Go-Around Procedure Step by Step?

Commit these five steps to memory so your hands execute them before your brain has to deliberate:

1. Full power. Push the throttle smoothly but assertively all the way forward. In a Cessna 172 or Piper Cherokee, expect left-turning tendency from torque and P-factor. Apply right rudder immediately.

2. Carb heat off. If carburetor heat was on, push it to cold. Warm air dilutes the mixture and robs power exactly when you need every bit of it.

3. Pitch for climb. Establish a positive rate of climb at a safe airspeed. Target V_Y (best rate of climb speed). In the 172S model, that’s 74 knots.

4. Retract flaps incrementally. This is where students get into trouble. Do not retract flaps all at once. Go from full to 20 degrees, let the airplane accelerate and confirm a positive climb, then to 10 degrees, then to zero. Each notch changes the lift and drag profile. Retracting all flaps at once near the ground causes a sudden lift loss the airplane cannot compensate for at low speed. Pilots have settled back onto the runway — or hit obstacles beyond it — by yanking flaps up all at once.

5. Fly the airplane. Climb out on the right side of the runway so you are not directly over traffic on the surface or on another approach.

Power, carb heat, pitch, flaps incrementally, fly. Five steps, in order, smoothly, starting the instant you make the decision — not two seconds later, not after one more attempt to salvage the approach.

Why Do Students Fail the Go-Around on Checkrides?

It almost never happens because they can’t physically perform the maneuver. It happens because of when they decide — or fail to decide.

The Commitment Trap

You’ve been flying the pattern with the examiner watching. You turned final, set up the approach, and now your brain tells you that going around means you failed. So you keep pressing — trying to bleed off speed, trying to get back on centerline, trying to make it work.

Here’s the truth: the examiner wants to see you go around when the approach isn’t working. The ACS explicitly tests for this judgment. Pressing an unstabilized approach to a bad landing is the failure. The go-around is the save.

Examiners consistently say that a well-executed go-around from a bad approach impresses them far more than a mediocre landing from an approach that should have been abandoned. Some examiners deliberately set up scenarios where the go-around is the right answer — extending your downwind for traffic so you end up high on final — just to see if you’ll make the call.

Fumbling the Sequence

Students who didn’t plan for the go-around often reach for flaps before adding power, forget the carb heat and wonder why the engine sounds rough, or pitch up too aggressively and find themselves climbing at 60 knots with full flaps on the edge of a stall.

Flying It Like an Emergency

Some students add full power and yank the nose up as if avoiding terrain. The airplane balloons, airspeed drops, and suddenly you’re slow and nose-high at low altitude — a stall-spin setup. The go-around should be smooth and controlled, not a panic maneuver.

How Do You Train Yourself to Make the Call?

The cure is two-part: practice more than you think you need to, and brief the go-around before every approach.

Before every approach — even in training — say to yourself: “If this approach is not stabilized by 300 feet AGL, I am going around. Power, carb heat, pitch, flaps, fly.” That three-second brief pre-loads the decision so that when the moment arrives, you’re executing a plan you already committed to, not making a choice under pressure.

300 feet AGL is a solid general gate for VFR flying. Some instructors use 500 feet. Some use the point where you’d normally select full flaps. Pick a gate with your instructor and be consistent. The key is making the go/no-go decision at a predetermined altitude, not in the flare when your options are nearly gone.

Checkride Scenario: Putting It All Together

The examiner asks for a normal landing at a towered airport. You’re cleared to land. Final looks good initially, but you’re half a dot high on your visual glide path. You pull a little power. A gust bumps you up — now a full dot high. You push the nose over slightly to compensate, and airspeed climbs to 75 knots in the 172. Normal approach reference speed is 65 knots. You cross the threshold high and fast at about 100 feet above the touchdown zone.

If you force it, you’ll float to the second half of the runway and land long. If you push the nose down, you’ll touch down fast and use even more pavement. Either way, the examiner watches you land outside the standards for the task.

The answer: go around. Full power, carb heat cold, pitch for climb, flaps up incrementally. Tell tower: "[Callsign], going around." That’s it — no explanation, no apology. Fly the airplane first, talk second. Tower will acknowledge and sequence you back in.

That go-around passes you. You just demonstrated exactly what the FAA wants: recognition that the approach didn’t meet standards and decisive corrective action.

How Do You Make the Radio Call During a Go-Around?

At a towered field: "[Callsign], going around." Tower will acknowledge and provide sequencing instructions.

At a non-towered field: "[Airport name] traffic, [callsign], going around, runway two seven."

Keep it simple. Fly the airplane first. Communicate second.

A Mental Model That Works

Think of every approach as a test with two correct answers:

• Answer one: A stabilized approach resulting in a safe landing.
• Answer two: A go-around from an unstabilized approach that sets you up to try again.

There is only one wrong answer: pressing an unstabilized approach to a landing you’re not set up for.

The go-around is not Plan B. It is Plan A-2 — always on the table. Airline captains with 20,000 hours go around when the approach isn’t right. There is no experience level at which you outgrow this maneuver.

Practice until the steps are automatic. Brief it before every approach. Set your decision gate. And when the moment comes — power up, clean up, climb up, come around, do it again.

Key Takeaways

• The go-around is a five-step sequence: full power, carb heat off, pitch for climb, retract flaps one notch at a time, fly the airplane
• Brief the go-around before every approach with a predetermined decision gate (typically 300–500 feet AGL)
• On a checkride, a well-executed go-around passes you — pressing a bad approach to a bad landing fails you
• Never retract flaps all at once near the ground; the sudden lift loss can cause the airplane to settle or hit obstacles
• The commitment trap is the real enemy — the maneuver is simple, but the decision to execute it requires pre-loaded discipline

References: FAA Airplane Flying Handbook Chapter 9, Private Pilot Airman Certification Standards — both available free at faa.gov.