Contents


PTS Go-Around
1. Knows elements required in go-around
2. Makes timely decisions
3. Applies full power and sets pitch attitude according to airspeed
4. Retracts and sets flaps.
5. Gear
6. Climbs and transitions as required
7. Directional and drift control
8. Noise abatement procedures
9. Flies pattern
10.Completes checklist.

Landing Expectancy
After many successful landings the go-around proficiency decays and you anticipate every approach results in a landing. There is a tremendous change in expectation and outcome when a landing changes to a go-around. There is a safety boundary between the two that becomes more and more narrow with experience. The successful pilot soon loses sight of the go-around as a safety maneuver.

When do you go-around? Anytime, for whatever reason, if you feel uncomfortable about any aspect of the landing procedure. On approach if you feel too high, low, fast, or slow. In the flare if not straight, ballooning, high, bouncing, slow or fast. the go-around is an exercise of judgment. The student should never try to save a landing. Go-around. Do not use the radio. Over a real or imaginary runway continue straight until reaching the departure end of the runway and a safe/noise abatement altitude before turning.

The pilot who is not prepared for the go-around may be unintentionally preparing for an accident. Being hesitant in making the go-around is just as likely to precipitate an accident, as is a poor landing. The go-around is the 'Hail Mary' of landing procedures. It is as aggressive a maneuver as the non-aerobic pilot is going to make. Get in full power and accept a loss of altitude if needed to regain flying and climb speed. Simulated go-arounds can never create the experience of the visual and unnerving ground rising to meet you.

Go-Around and Why
When do you go-around? Anytime, for whatever reason, if you feel uncomfortable about any aspect of the landing procedure. On approach if you feel too high, low, fast, or slow. In the flare if not straight, ballooning, high, bouncing, slow or fast. The go-around is an exercise of judgment. The student should never try to save a landing. Go-around. Do not use the radio. Over a real or imaginary runway continue straight until reaching the departure end of the runway and a safe/noise abatement altitude before turning.

The earlier you go-around the better. This is an action deemed necessary to correct control, approach, flare, or rollout problems. Altitude allows some trade off for airspeed. The lower the go-around the more difficult it may seem but this is not necessarily so. You have less distance to fall in a stall the closer to the ground you are. This is because flight within ground effect requires less power for a given performance. The aircraft can fly close to the ground even with full flaps. In ground effect the partial removal of flaps is less likely to cause a stall. There is more excess power in ground effect so that more acceleration can occur as the flaps are removed.

The go-around should be a smooth transition from a landing situation into takeoff configuration. Stop landing, start climbing. The go-around usually is initiated for instructional purposes, traffic, lack of aircraft control, weather or surface conditions. The go- around is essentially a takeoff with full flaps. You must have practiced at altitude so that you know ahead of time, which pressures to anticipate as flaps are retracted, and you maintain level flight. Flap retraction must be carefully controlled because most training aircraft have little excess power.

The successful go-around is predicated on the pilot's understanding of required planning, setting aircraft attitude, cleaning up the configuration, and use of power. The greatest enemy of planning is any form of delay, procrastination or hesitation. The delayed go-around greatly increases the plucker factor. The proximity to the ground should not do this but it does. Actually, the ground proximity should rightly be considered an asset. Ground effect, properly used, greatly enhances the ability of the aircraft to avoid the ground, accelerate and climb. Most often go-around accidents are the result of premature and unintentional climbs at low airspeeds. Airspeed is money in the bank. Get the airspeed up with full SMOOTH power, a level attitude or slight dive held against the power and flap effort to raise the nose, and get off the flaps slowly until reaching climb speed. The best go-around is a precision control maneuver when done properly. Every move is done in anticipation of what you know will come next. If you don't know, learn. A pilot's reliability factor can well be measured by the smoothness with which a go-around is performed.

Knowing how to evaluate whether you're prepared to make any specific approach is one of the more difficult flight operations. Failure to go-around soon enough is a factor of attitude. A delay in initiating a go-around is most apt to result in an incident/accident.

Accidents that are subsequent to initiation of a go-around are reflective of late decision, poor attitude control, airspeed and heading problems and a flight path leading to an obstacle. Making a go-around from a touchdown past the mid-point of the runway may be too late. You are more likely to survive a slower contact with an obstacle on the ground than a higher speed uncontrolled contact from the air. Ground looping will use the aircraft structure to take the initial shock of impact.

The Flight Safety Foundation has found that pilots fail to recognize an unsalvageable approach in time to initiate a safe go-around. The go-around, if not always a part of your expectations, requires an instant change of procedure. If the procedure is not known as a first learned process then the mental and physical coordination must be performed at a more conscious level. Although the go-around is most usually begun relatively low to the ground, this need not be the case. If things are not right on the downwind you can begin there and just fly the pattern at altitude. Regardless of the aircraft the fundamentals of the go-around are the same; power, airspeed, re-configure, climb. The go-around is not an item for discussion. At the first idea of a go-around, it is time.

The go-around requires a sudden switch in mental awareness. Instead of going down we must begin a reversal of process and thinking. The areas of importance change, first things now become last things. Full power, accelerate in level flight to climb speed, clean up flaps, climb attitude, and trim.

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