WHEN SHOULD YOU MAKE THE DECISION TO GO AROUND?  

Acknowledgements: Thomas P. Turner, Mastery Flight Training, Inc./Flight Instructor Hall of Fame inductee

(Ed.Note: The following is extracted from an article in Thomas’ regular Flying Lessons at his website www.mastery.flight.training.com)

 “Sometimes you have little warning — an airplane pulls out onto the runway at the last minute, or one landing ahead of you does not turn onto a taxiway as quickly as you expect. You see an animal or obstacle on the runway at the last moment. A last-minute wind shear or gust destabilises your round-out or flare. In any of these cases you need to initiate a baulked landing — a go-around — at the last moment,sometimes even after your wheels touch the surface. 

 Most of the time, however, the need for a go-around is more related to the pilot’s technique, not what’s going on outside the cockpit. Is the airplane too fast, or descending too rapidly, or aimed too far down the runway?  Are you having difficulty maintaining runway alignment in a crosswind?  Does the landing simply not “feel right”?  Any of these indications call for breaking off the landing, going around and trying again … or perhaps diverting to another airport.

In these more common go-around scenarios, you have plenty of clues that it’s not working out as planned, even before you enter the flare. If the airplane is too fast or too slow, the flaps or retractable landing gear are not set correctly, your approach is too shallow or too steep, or you’re not maintaining alignment with the runway with your main wheels straddling the extended centreline, you should be able to detect the anomaly before you get too close to the ground. There’s a good chance you won’t be able to fix the problem and force the airplane into the proper position and condition at the last minute.

So, don’t wait for the flare to decide whether to land. Begin checking your airplane’s current state and its trend toward the landing zone as soon as you enter final approach. If the state and trend are not correct on final approach, begin your go-around then.  

Going around is a part of flying as natural as landing or taking off …. or it will be, if you occasionally practice the task.  

On short final approach, say no less than 400 feet Above Ground Level (AGL), check that all the following apply:

  • The airplane is properly configured.  This means the power is set as normal or expected, the flaps are in the planned landing position and retractable landing gear, as applicable, is down.

  • The airplane is on speed .... as recommended by the Pilot’s Operating Handbook (POH), including added speed for a gust factor or if landing with partial or no flaps.

  • The airplane is on glide path. This may be an electronic glideslope from an ILS or derived by GPS, a visual glide path following a VASI, PAPI or similar guidance, or simply a stationary aim point on the runway ....

  • The airplane is aligned with the runway centreline, and you are having no trouble maintaining alignment.

·       The runway is clear, and if at a tower-controlled airport you are cleared to land.

 If any of the above criteria is not the case, immediately initiate a go-around .... Do not try to “salvage” an out-of-tolerance approach within 400 feet of the ground.  

It’s trickier when flying an instrument procedure and breaking out at or above minimums but below 400 feet above the runway elevation. An electronic glidepath or glideslope will usually be aiming you at the touchdown zone. Watch for differences between the electronic and visual glide path indicators as noted on approach charts and be ready to transition to the visual glidepath after breaking out if a visual path indicator is available .... 

 Let’s assume, though, that we’re visual all the way down final approach .... as you begin your go-around (in accordance with your Instructor’s/POH parameters - Ed.) Beware the SOMATOGRAVIC EFFECT, or the “false climb illusion.”  As an aircraft accelerates, the sensory hairs in the pilot’s inner ear bend rearward under inertia.  This is the same movement that occurs when an airplane pitches upward steeply.  If the rate of acceleration is great, and the outside visibility is limited by darkness or obstructions to vision, the pilot may interpret the SOMATOGRAVIC EFFECT as a steep climb out and instinctively push forward on the controls, reducing the climb or even putting the airplane into a descent.  

 There are many instances when an airplane impacted obstacles far beyond the departure end of the runway during take-off or go-around at night or in severely limited visibility, and the “false climb illusion” is suspected as a contributing factor.

 Your defence against the SOMATOGRAVIC EFFECT is to establish the proper attitude, through the combination of visual references backed up by the attitude indicator when visibility is impaired but generally good, and solely by reference to instruments on a dark night departure or go-around, or when taking off or executing a baulked landing in reduced visibility or instrument conditions.

Go-arounds are easy, if you’ve been practicing. They’re even easier and less dramatic if you begin confirming you’re in configuration, on speed, on glidepath and in alignment, and that the runway is clear as soon as you enter final approach, and begin a go-around at 400 feet above runway threshold height (or higher) if any one of these criteria are not met within a narrow margin”.

 FLY SAFE!

Tony Birth