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Going Around

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The decision to go around is a normal, non-failure outcome of an approach and should be made decisively without hesitation.
  • The immediate priorities are to apply power to stop the descent and manage pitch to prevent a stall, while simultaneously controlling directional yaw with rudder and adjusting pitch trim.
  • Once a positive climb and control are assured, progressively reconfigure the aircraft by retracting flaps (partially at first) and then landing gear according to manufacturer procedures to minimize drag.
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It basically doesn’t matter why you need to discard your visual landing approach and go around. It could be something as routine as another airplane or a vehicle on the runway, a poorly flown approach or configuration error, or a controller’s direction in response to something you can’t even see. But go around you shall, and you “suddenly” have a whole new task to perform, an airplane to reconfigure and a low-speed, high-power maneuver to fly. Did we mention you’re close to the ground?

We put suddenly in scare quotes above because there’s no reason you should be surprised by the need to go around. A landing approach has two outcomes: a successful landing or a go-around. (Supposedly, there’s a third outcome—bending the airplane—but that’s what we’re trying to avoid.) It’s a binary thing, and there’s absolutely no reason to be surprised the thing you desired most isn’t going to happen right away. Let’s look at the sequence of events.

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