Go Around Procedure: A Pilot's Guide to Making the Call

You're on short final. The runway is made, but the picture isn't right. Maybe the wind just shifted. Maybe you're floating. Maybe the airplane feels a little fast, a little high, a little busy. Pilots often get into trouble in these situations, not because they don't know what a go-around is, but because they hesitate for two more seconds and try to salvage a landing that stopped being worth saving.

A good go around procedure isn't just a memory item. It's a decision framework, an aircraft-handling exercise, and a test of discipline under pressure. The pilots who do it well don't treat it like an emergency. They treat it like a normal outcome of an approach that no longer meets the standard.

The Go Around Is Not a Sign of Failure

The worst way to think about a go-around is as a rescue move after you've already messed up. That mindset causes late decisions, rushed control inputs, and a strong temptation to “make this one work.” Instructors see it all the time. The student knows the approach is unraveling, but keeps trying to patch it together because abandoning the landing feels like losing.

Professional pilots think differently. Every approach is a possible landing, but it's also a possible go-around right up to the point where the airplane is safely on the ground and under control. That mental framing changes everything. It removes the shame from the maneuver and puts the focus where it belongs, on judgment.

The decision is often more important than the landing

The safety case is overwhelming. A Flight Safety Foundation study analyzing 16 years of data found that 83 percent of runway excursion incidents could have been avoided if pilots had executed a go-around, and it identified failure to go around as the single most critical risk factor in approach and landing accidents.

That should reset how you view the maneuver. The go-around isn't evidence that the approach failed. Very often, it's evidence that the pilot succeeded in making the right call before the accident chain closed.

Practical rule: If you're debating whether to go around, you're usually already late.

There's another reason pilots resist the maneuver. The airplane is close to the runway, the runway is right there, and the brain wants closure. Landing feels simpler than changing plans. But “simpler” and “safer” aren't the same thing near the ground.

What works and what does not

What works is a briefed mindset. Before descent, decide that a stable approach earns a landing. Anything else earns a go-around. What doesn't work is bargaining with yourself in the flare.

A calm pilot doesn't ask, “Can I save this?” A disciplined pilot asks, “Does this still meet my standard?”

That standard should be clear long before short final. If your operation or training environment needs a more consistent safety culture around these decisions, PilotGPT safety resources can help standardize briefings and cockpit expectations.

When to Go Around Recognizing the Triggers

Most bad go-around decisions aren't really decision failures. They're trigger failures. The pilot never established a clear line that says, “If this happens, I'm done with the landing.” Without that line, the approach turns into negotiation.

A usable system separates hard triggers from situational triggers. Hard triggers come from your stabilized approach criteria and your operating habits. Situational triggers come from everything outside the airplane that can instantly make a landing a bad idea.

Build hard triggers before descent

The exact numbers depend on your airplane, your operation, and your SOPs. The principle doesn't. By short final, the airplane should be where it belongs, configured, stable, and requiring normal corrections.

Use a checklist like this:

• Airspeed on target: If speed control is wandering and you're chasing it with large pitch or power changes, stop trying to fix it near the ground.
• Path under control: If you're diving at the runway, floating above profile, or making aggressive corrections to get back on slope, reject the landing.
• Configuration complete: Gear down, flaps where they belong, landing checklist complete. If you're still configuring late, workload has already climbed.
• Centerline and alignment maintained: If drift, crab correction, or directional control doesn't look right, don't convince yourself it will magically improve in the flare.
• Visual picture acceptable: If the runway environment, depth perception, wind cues, or traffic picture look wrong, honor that signal.

Pilots often know these standards but still continue. That's the trap. Skybrary's go-around decision-making review notes a critical behavioral gap: 97 percent of unstabilized approaches are continued to a landing, even though only about 3 percent of those specific instances should result in a go-around being flown according to standard operating procedures.

A stabilized approach is not a suggestion. It's the price of admission for a landing.

If you want examples of scenario-based training discussions around these decisions, the PilotGPT blog is a useful reference point.

Situational triggers count too

Some go-arounds have nothing to do with your airspeed or glidepath. The approach can be beautiful and still need to be rejected.

A few common examples:

The key is to decide early. The farther you carry a bad approach, the fewer good options remain.

How to Fly the Go Around Procedure

The mechanics need to be simple enough to survive stress. When the runway is filling the windshield and the workload spikes, nobody needs a speech. They need an immediate sequence that protects lift, arrests descent, and cleans up the airplane without creating a new problem.

The broad template is Power, Pitch, Flaps, Gear. Some pilots teach it as Cram, Climb, Clean, Cool, Call. Different wording, same priority. Add power, establish the climb, then reconfigure in the right order.

Here's a visual version of that sequence:

Fly the sequence in order

The Power-Pitch-Flaps-Gear sequence described here captures the universal idea well: apply full thrust, set climb attitude, retract flaps incrementally, then retract gear after positive climb is confirmed. The order matters because the wing and the propeller or engine aren't separate problems. They're part of the same energy picture.

1. Power

   Go to maximum appropriate power smoothly and promptly. If the airplane needs rudder as power comes in, give it rudder. A sloppy power application creates yaw and drag right when you can least afford it.

2. Pitch

   Set a climb attitude, then verify with the performance you're getting. In many training airplanes that means a deliberate nose-up change, not a dramatic yank. You're trying to stop descent and build a climb, not shock the airplane into a mush.

3. Flaps

During this stage, many pilots hurt themselves. Don't dump all the flaps in one motion unless your specific POH explicitly calls for something unusual. Reduce drag in stages after the airplane is responding and climbing.

4. Gear

Once you have a positive rate and the airplane is climbing, retract the gear if applicable. Too early, and you can turn a settle-back onto the runway into a gear-up arrival.

For airport context, pattern layout, and nearby procedure awareness during training flights, PilotGPT airport tools can reduce some of the head-down work before you ever get to short final.

A short demonstration can help make the sequence more concrete:

Why pilots get behind the airplane

The go-around gets ugly when pilots rush the cleanup instead of flying the climb. They grab flap handles early, forget rudder, skip trim, or start talking before the airplane is under control.

Fly the airplane out of the low-altitude problem first. Configuration changes and radio calls come after control is secure.

A smooth go-around feels almost boring. Full power. Positive pitch. Confirm climb. Clean up in sequence. Trim as needed. Then communicate. If it feels frantic, the pilot is probably trying to do three steps at once.

The Critical Nuance of Aircraft Specific Procedures

Generic go-around advice starts to break down when facing real-world conditions. “Add power and clean up” is fine as a classroom phrase. It's not enough when you're close to the ground in a specific airplane with specific flap settings, pitch characteristics, and stall behavior.

A Cessna, a Cirrus, a Piper, and a complex retractable may all share the same broad flow, but they don't always want the same timing on flap retraction, trim changes, or obstacle-clearance cleanup. The pilot who treats all of them the same is gambling with energy management.

Generic technique can be wrong for your airplane

One of the most dangerous training scars is the belief that there's a single universal flap move that works in every airframe. There isn't. The timing and amount of flap retraction can be the difference between a strong climb and an abrupt sink.

Pilot Institute's discussion of go-arounds highlights a critical risk: aircraft-specific flap retraction matters, and retracting all flaps before adding power on short final in some aircraft can cause a stall or an uncontrolled drop. That's exactly the sort of mistake pilots make when they remember a slogan but not the approved procedure.

Consider the trade-off:

• Leave too much flap too long: You carry drag and may struggle to climb well.
• Retract too much too soon: You lose lift close to the ground, often before the airplane has enough energy to absorb it.
• Pitch aggressively without enough power: You can end up mushing, not climbing.
• Chase cleanup before performance: You create workload while still descending.

The POH settles the argument

The fix is not more generic advice. The fix is to know what your POH says for your airplane.

Before you practice or brief a go-around, know these items for the specific airframe you're flying:

Pilots get themselves in trouble by learning “a go-around” instead of learning their airplane's go-around.

After the Maneuver Comms Workload and Variations

Once the airplane is climbing, the maneuver isn't over. The next challenge is task management. Pilots tend to either under-communicate and disappear into the workload, or over-communicate before the airplane is fully under control.

The right priority is old and still correct. Aviate, direct, communicate. In that order. If you reverse it, you start speaking while the airplane still needs hands and attention.

Aviate first then sort the rest

At a towered airport, the first call can be very short. “Tower, N12345 going around.” That's enough to tell everyone what matters. You don't need a polished speech while you're cleaning up the airplane and tracking runway heading or assigned instructions.

At a non-towered field, be just as direct. State the airplane identification, location, and intent. Then fly the pattern. If traffic is dense, the quality of your scan matters more than the elegance of your wording.

A good single-pilot flow after climb is established looks like this:

• Control the airplane: Confirm pitch, power, and trim are where they need to be.
• Follow the path: Stay on runway centerline or published lateral guidance until it's time to maneuver.
• Clean up methodically: Don't skip a step because the radio gets busy.
• Make the call: Keep it short and useful.
• Reset mentally: Decide whether the next move is another pattern, a diversion, or a different runway.

Workload spikes because pilots try to finish the whole flight in the next ten seconds. You only need to win the next task.

VFR and IFR are not the same problem

Under VFR, a go-around often turns into pattern work. Depending on the airport and traffic, you may continue straight ahead, offset slightly as local procedures require, or re-enter the pattern as instructed or announced. The big trap here is complacency. Pilots who know the field well sometimes rush back into the pattern before they've fully stabilized the climb and reset the airplane.

Under IFR, a go-around becomes a missed approach problem. That means the navigation piece may become the dominant workload item very quickly. If there's published missed approach guidance, you need to fly it unless ATC assigns something else. This is why instrument pilots need the missed approach briefed before beginning the approach, not after deciding to reject the landing.

A retractable or multi-engine airplane adds another layer. Configuration changes have a larger performance penalty, and directional control matters even more as power changes occur. In those aircraft, the discipline to verify positive control and positive climb before cleanup isn't just good form. It's survival-minded flying.

Common Go Around Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Most go-around errors don't start with poor stick-and-rudder skill. They start with a rushed brain. The pilot waits too long, gets surprised by the need to go around, then tries to do everything at once. That's how a simple maneuver turns into a low-altitude trap.

This graphic captures the common failure points well:

The mistakes that keep showing up

The biggest one is premature flap retraction. AOPA's go-around guidance warns about the retardation of lift caused by pulling flaps too early, a pitfall that accounts for a significant portion of go-around accidents where pilots experience sudden altitude loss or a stall during climb-out. That phrase matters because it describes exactly what the pilot feels. The airplane was flying, then it suddenly isn't happy anymore.

Other repeat offenders show up in training all the time:

• Late power application: The pilot decides to go around, but advances power slowly or halfway. The sink continues longer than expected.
• Insufficient pitch change: The airplane accelerates low over the runway instead of climbing away with purpose.
• Over-rotation: The pilot reacts to the runway picture and pitches too much, trading what little energy is available for drag and mush.
• Skipping trim: Heavy control forces build fast, especially in airplanes with strong pitch change when power comes in.
• Talking too early: The radio call steals attention from the part of the maneuver that keeps the airplane safe.

A clean radio call has never fixed a poorly flown go-around.

How to train it so it stays automatic

The best cure is deliberate practice with a CFI. Not generic pattern work. Specific go-around scenarios.

Train these variations:

1. From a normal short final

   This builds the baseline sequence and reinforces an early decision.

2. From the flare

   This teaches discipline when the landing picture is tempting and the runway feels close enough to force.

3. After a bounce

   A bounced landing is a classic time for bad judgment. Practice rejecting it early rather than trying to salvage the second touchdown.

4. With crosswind

   Pilots need to feel the rudder and alignment demands as power comes in.

5. At night or in reduced visual comfort

   The picture changes. So does the temptation to keep going because changing plans feels harder.

Debrief every one of them the same way. Was the decision early enough? Was power immediate? Did the airplane climb before major cleanup? Did the pilot stay ahead of the workload?

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PilotGPT helps pilots handle high-workload moments with fast, offline access to POH-based procedures, airport data, charts, and cockpit-ready answers customized for the specific airframe. If you want a tool that supports safer decision-making when the landing stops meeting the standard, take a look at PilotGPT.