Three Tries to Land: Lessons in the Art of the Go-Around

Busy traffic pattern provides invaluable experience in balked landings for instrument candidate.

Meg Godlewski

Tuesday, February 17, 2026 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

It’s important to know how and when to perform a go-around. [Credit: Meg Godlewski]

Key Takeaways:

A surprisingly busy sunny Sunday at a nontowered airport created a challenging environment for a CFI and an instrument student, highlighting the influx of pilots in good weather.
The intense traffic in the landing pattern necessitated three go-arounds for the instructional flight, underscoring the critical importance of this safety maneuver.
The experience provided valuable real-world learning, emphasizing extreme situational awareness, effective communication, and pilot discretion in high-traffic, pilot-controlled airspace.

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I had a pretty good idea what the day was going to be like when we were No. 3 for takeoff at the nontowered airport and it wasn’t quite 10:20 a.m. on a Sunday. The sky over the airport was clear—to the east was a layer of clouds, and to the south a layer of fog.

That bright yellow thing that infrequently appears in the sky over Seattle in the winter was in the sky, and like it always does, brought out the pilots in droves.