During a Go-Around from a Full-Flap Approach, Why Must You Retract Flaps Incrementally Rather Than All at Once, and What Is the Correct Procedure?

Why the Go-Around Is One of the Most Demanding Maneuvers You Will Fly

A go-around sounds straightforward on paper: add power, climb away, try again. But the transition from a stabilized full-flap approach to a positive climb is one of the most aerodynamically demanding moments in everyday flying. You are simultaneously at low airspeed, low altitude, high drag, and low power — and you are about to reverse every one of those conditions as quickly as possible. How you manage your flaps during that reversal can mean the difference between a smooth recovery and a controlled-flight-into-terrain accident.

DPEs ask about go-around flap retraction not to trip you up on a technicality, but because this is exactly the kind of procedure where rushed or improvised actions have caused fatal accidents. The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (PHAK, FAA-H-8083-25), in its coverage of flap effects under the Performance chapter, makes clear that flaps produce both lift and drag — and that removing that lift abruptly at low speed near the ground removes the one thing keeping you airborne.

What Happens If You Retract All Flaps at Once

Imagine you are on short final at 40 degrees of flap, airspeed right on the numbers, and you decide to go around. In a moment of urgency, you jam the flap lever up to zero while simultaneously adding power. What happens? The aircraft loses a substantial portion of its lift almost instantaneously. At the low airspeeds typical of a final approach, the wing is already working hard. Strip away that lift all at once and the aircraft will sink — sometimes sharply — before the power has had time to accelerate the airframe and the wing has had time to rebuild lift at the new, cleaner configuration.

Near the runway threshold, that sink has nowhere to go. There is no altitude to trade for time. This is not a theoretical hazard; it is a well-documented accident pattern. The PHAK is explicit that full flap configurations create significant induced drag and that the lift penalty of rapid retraction must be managed carefully. At high flap deflections, the drag contribution is disproportionately large relative to the lift being produced, which is exactly why manufacturers design go-around procedures with staged retraction sequences.

The Correct Go-Around Procedure, Step by Step

The correct procedure follows a clear priority order, and the sequence matters as much as the individual steps.

• Apply full power immediately. This is the first action, without exception. You cannot safely manage flap retraction if you have not first committed to the climb with maximum available power. Attempting to clean up the aircraft before power is established is a common and dangerous mistake.
• Establish a positive climb attitude. Pitch for the appropriate go-around or climb attitude per your POH. Let the aircraft accelerate with power before you begin removing lift.
• Retract flaps one stage at a time. Most POHs specify retracting from the full-flap position to an intermediate setting first — commonly from 40 degrees to 20 degrees — and then pausing. This partial retraction reduces the high-drag penalty of full flaps while preserving most of the lift. As the aircraft accelerates and a positive climb is confirmed, you retract the next stage.
• Confirm a positive rate of climb before retracting further. Each flap stage removal must be timed to match the aircraft's growing energy state. You are not racing to get clean — you are managing the transition so the wing always has enough speed to support the lift reduction you are asking of it.
• Retract landing gear only after a positive rate of climb is established. For complex aircraft, gear retraction comes after climb is confirmed, never simultaneously with flap retraction. Pulling gear and flaps at the same time compounds the configuration change and increases workload at the worst possible moment.

The exact flap settings and airspeeds for each stage are not universal — they live in your POH. Improvising a retraction sequence because you vaguely remember what someone told you in ground school is a mistake the DPE will catch immediately. Know your aircraft's specific go-around procedure cold.

How to Answer This Question on Your Checkride

When your examiner asks this question, they are listening for three things: that you understand the aerodynamic reason behind incremental retraction, that you can describe the correct sequence with power-first discipline, and that you reference your POH as the authoritative source rather than improvising. A strong answer connects the physics — sudden lift loss at low speed — to the procedural logic of staged retraction, and it demonstrates that you know this procedure is aircraft-specific, not generic.

Avoid the trap of describing the go-around as simply adding power and raising flaps. The examiner wants to hear that you understand the critical window between maximum drag configuration and a safe climb configuration, and that you respect it. The pilots who have gotten into trouble on go-arounds are almost always the ones who rushed that transition without understanding why the staged procedure exists in the first place.

If you want to practice questions like this in a realistic oral exam format, try SimulatedCheckride.com.