Of all the explanations offered for landing overruns, one of the most perplexing is the claim that “it was too late to go around.” Excuse me?
Variations on the theme abound. The student pilot soloing a Flight Design CTSW thought he was high on final, then found the airplane floating about five feet above the runway after he flared. “He considered another go-around, but decided against it because the airplane was too slow, and too far down the runway. The airplane began to porpoise…bounced into a nose-high attitude...collided with the runway in a nose-down attitude, [and] collapsed the nose gear….” The pilot of a Cessna 182 “touched down farther down the runway than expected” but decided not to go around “as there was a tree at the departure end…The airplane subsequently continued past the runway end…and impacted a wood fence and a mobile home.”
OK, let’s try to work this out. Too slow? If the airplane’s just touched down, it’s still very close to flying speed. Minimal acceleration should be needed to regain a positive rate of climb, especially if it’s still carrying enough energy to bounce back into the air. Too far? Piston engines rev immediately. With the aircraft already close to rotation speed, much less distance is needed to get airborne again than to take off from a standing start. A tree? This particular runway was 75 feet wide. The flight controls are effective by the time the airplane is climbing. As it was, the 182 managed to miss the tree; had it become airborne, it probably would have missed the fence and the mobile home, too.
Obviously, at some point it really is too late. If you’re 100 feet from the end of the runway, heading toward a line of trees after the airspeed indicator’s gone dead, you’re best off hitting them as slowly as possible. That means staying on the ground and on the brakes. But there’s no reason to let things reach that point. Before the airplane ever touches down, you should know—not think, know—that you’ll have enough room to stop, even if the runway’s slick. If you’re not sure, don’t wait to find out. Going around is a lot easier while the airplane’s still flying.
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