Takeoffs, landings, and the go-around at commercial standard

Configuration, the runway decision, what wind and surface do to the numbers, tailwind and LAHSO, the risks the ACS attaches to short and soft fields, and the go-around decided in time.

17 min read · Commercial operations

After this lesson you can

  • Choose the airplane configuration and the runway from pilot capability, performance, available distance, and wind.
  • Quantify what a headwind, a tailwind, density altitude and the surface do to takeoff and landing distance.
  • Decide whether to accept a land-and-hold-short clearance, and what a go-around means after accepting one.
  • Relate windshear, collision hazards, low-altitude maneuvering and distraction to short-field and soft-field operations.
  • Recognize the need for a go-around without delay and fly it: power, attitude, configuration.

The commercial applicant flies the same takeoffs and landings as the private applicant, to tighter tolerances, and is asked one more kind of question about each: not how, but why here, why this configuration, why now. The Airman Certification Standards phrase those questions as risks, and most of them are about a decision made before the airplane is on the runway.

This lesson takes the decisions in order. Configuration and runway first, then the atmosphere and the surface, then two clearances that bind you to a distance, then the risks that ride along with short and soft fields, and finally the go-around, which the Airplane Flying Handbook calls a normal maneuver and most pilots treat as an admission.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.Configuration: what the flaps, gear and trim are for on each takeoff
  2. 2.The runway decision: capability, performance, distance, wind
  3. 3.Wind, density altitude, and the surface: the same factors on landing
  4. 4.Land and hold short: a clearance you are allowed to refuse
  5. 5.The risks the ACS ties to short and soft fields
  6. 6.The go-around: decided in time, flown in order

These 6 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the CPL track. Paid once, yours for good.

See what the CPL track costsEvery module 1 is free to read, no account, no card.

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.