For US student pilots
The go-around radio call
A go-around is the one manoeuvre where the radio comes last. Power, pitch, flaps, climb, and only then the button. The call itself is three words. What matters more is knowing what the tower means when it says it to you, and where you go afterwards.
When you decide to go around
Fly the airplane. There is no prescribed pilot phrase for a go-around in the AIM or the Pilot/Controller Glossary, and the tower does not need one before you act: you are the pilot in command and a go-around needs no clearance. Once the climb is established and you have a hand free, tell the tower in as few words as possible, with your call sign, and then listen for instructions.
Cessna Six Zero Foxtrot, going around.
Expect the tower to tell you where to go: most often to fly the pattern again, sometimes an instruction to fly runway heading or to make a particular turn to keep you clear of other traffic. Read back headings and altitudes with your call sign (AIM 4-4-7 b).
When the tower says it to you
“Go around” from ATC is an instruction to abandon the approach; additional instructions may follow (P/CG GO AROUND). Unless the tower says otherwise, a VFR aircraft overflies the runway climbing to pattern altitude and re-enters the pattern on the crosswind leg (P/CG). It is one of the tower’s standard sequencing phrases, used when the aircraft ahead is slow clearing the runway or spacing has collapsed (JO 7110.65 3-8-1); it says nothing about your flying. Acknowledge with your call sign and do it.
Cessna Six Zero Foxtrot, go around, fly runway heading, I’ll call your crosswind.
Going around, runway heading, Cessna Six Zero Foxtrot.
At a non-towered airport
Announce it on the CTAF the same way, with the airport name first and last (AIM 4-1-9 g 8), then report the crosswind and downwind as you rejoin. The aircraft behind you on final needs to know you are climbing straight ahead through their airspace.
Half Moon Bay traffic, Cessna Six Zero Foxtrot, going around runway three zero, Half Moon Bay.
Half Moon Bay traffic, Cessna Six Zero Foxtrot, crosswind runway three zero, Half Moon Bay.
Go-around or low approach?
A low approach is the go-around manoeuvre done on purpose, instead of landing or a touch-and-go, and unless ATC authorizes otherwise it is flown straight ahead with no turns or climb until you have checked for other aircraft (AIM 4-3-12 a). If you plan one, ask for it: it is one of the things “cleared for the option” allows, and the tower treats you as arriving until you cross the threshold and departing after (P/CG; JO 7110.65 3-8-2).
The traffic pattern
The legs have standard names — departure, upwind, crosswind, downwind, base, final — and the tower uses them in instructions. [AIM 4-3-2 c]
- Pattern altitude
- Propeller aircraft: 1,000 feet AGL unless the Chart Supplement says otherwise; large and turbine aircraft 1,500 feet. [AIM 4-3-3 a]
- Turns
- Left unless the chart or the tower says right (“RP” on the chart for a right pattern). [AIM 4-3-3 c, d]
- Entry
- Level, abeam the midpoint at pattern altitude; the tower may say “enter left downwind”, “enter left base”, “straight-in approved”, “make right traffic”. [AIM 4-3-3, FIG 4-3-2; JO 7110.65 3-10-1]
- Reports
- Give the report the tower asked for — “midfield downwind, runway two seven” — and nothing more; the tower adds “report two mile final” when it wants that.
- Extend / I’ll call your base
- Acknowledge with your identification and fly it. Do not turn base until told.
- Go around
- Answer “going around” with your identification, then fly: overfly the runway, climb to pattern altitude, enter on the crosswind unless told otherwise. [P/CG]
Non-towered airports — CTAF, UNICOM & self-announce
Without an operating tower, everyone transmits on the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) — which may be a UNICOM, MULTICOM (122.9) or the closed tower’s frequency. [AIM 4-1-9]
- When
- Inbound: monitor and announce from 10 miles out; entering downwind, base and final; clear of the runway. Outbound: before taxiing, before taxiing onto the runway, and until 10 miles out. [AIM 4-1-9 c, TBL 4-1-1]
- How
- The airport name at the START and the END of every transmission; runways by number, never “the active”. [AIM 4-1-9 g 8]
- UNICOM
- State the station in each call; 10 miles out ask for wind and runway. [AIM 4-1-9 h]
- Straight-in
- Discouraged; if you do one, announce at 8–10 miles and coordinate — you have no priority over the pattern. [AIM 4-1-9 g 4]
- Never
- “Any traffic in the area, please advise.” Not a recognised phrase. Listen instead. [AIM 4-1-9 g 1]
Strawn traffic, Apache Two Two Five Zulu, ten miles south, two thousand five hundred, landing Strawn, Strawn.
Strawn traffic, Apache Two Two Five Zulu, entering left downwind runway one seven, full stop, Strawn.
Strawn traffic, Apache Two Two Five Zulu, clear of runway one seven, Strawn.
Practice the call you hope not to need
TowerTalk's Exercise G is the non-standard situations, the calls that are not in the script, with an AI tower at a real US airport, graded with the AIM paragraph.
Related
Study aid, written in our own words from the FAA Aeronautical Information Manual (Change 3, 7/9/26) and the Pilot/Controller Glossary, with paragraph references so you can check each point. Last reviewed 10 September 2026; awaiting review by a US flight instructor. It does not reproduce those documents and is not a substitute for them — always defer to the AIM, the current FAA publications, your instructor and your examiner. TowerTalk is not approved or endorsed by the FAA.