Training and Safety Tip: Aviate, then communicate

I double-checked my seat belt and cast a quick eye across the instruments to ensure all was well. Suddenly, my son—who was the pilot flying—announced, “Goin’ around.” He smoothly advanced the throttle, gently brought the nose up, and started climbing away from Runway 19. Then he made his radio call.

I had just been reminded that these days pilots are taught to go around when something’s not right with a landing. This is a good thing—it wasn’t always that way.

Back in my day, we prided ourselves on “salvaging” unstable approaches. Looking back on that now, it seems pretty crazy: to be proud of flying so badly that salvage was even necessary, then preening about it. So, the improved status of the go-around is one of the better changes in aviation I’ve seen in my time.

The proper procedure is to apply full power, establish a positive rate of climb, clean up the airplane aerodynamically by retracting the flaps (and gear if equipped), then make a radio call to let the tower—or, at a nontowered field, the other traffic—know what you are doing.

This sequence is sometimes taught as, “Cram, Climb, Clean, Call.” Calling that first step “cram” always makes me shudder, because if you cram in the throttle on some older carbureted engines, the engine stalls. Still, as a way of keeping the steps in proper order, I guess it's as good as anything else.

But my son aside, I’m seeing a lot of students moving “Call” up the list, sometimes nearly to the top. Look, you are low and slow, and your aircraft’s energy state is nil. Just fly the airplane. There’s plenty of time to call folks later. The tower has a window. They already know you are going around. If it’s a nontowered airport, no one else should be so close that another minute will make a difference. You probably chose to go around because your approach wasn’t stable, so don’t destabilize your go-around in a rush to communicate. Get some altitude. Get some speed. Take a moment to calm down and ensure all is well with your new state, then—and only then—make that call.

Maybe we should change the reminder to: “Cram, Climb, Clean, Calm, Call.”