![Mastering the 180-degree, power-off approach requires not just accuracy, but the judgment to go around when conditions fail. Pilots must remember that a missed maneuver is a learning opportunity, not failure. [Credit: Glenn Watson]](https://tbh.express/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/The-High-Cost-of-Trying-to-Salvage-a-Bad-Approach-scaled.jpg "The High Cost of Trying to Salvage a Bad Approach")
A Georgia pilot, 52, had 380 hours, an instrument rating, and a Cirrus SR22. He was working on his commercial. He had the day free, so he called an instructor friend and arranged to do some flying.
One of the skills tested for the commercial license—it used to be required for the private as well, but no longer—is the 180-degree, power-off approach to a landing. You cut power to idle on the downwind leg abeam a target point on the runway. You have to touch down on or beyond that target, but within 200 feet of it. It’s a routine landing for a sailplane, but in a powered airplane it has the exotic flavor of an emergency.
