Cause/Reasons for 'go-around' and aborted takeoff

iWantWings

iWantWings

Pre-takeoff checklist
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wingsIwant
Just curious: what are some of the causes - and reasons - for which you've had to do 'go-around' and abort takeoff?

Mine (the ones I remember, including primary training) would be something like:

Go-around
- Practice.
- Wind gusts
- Approach too high / too fast
- Insuficient separation from the airplane ahead
- After touchdown: Lateral load with big bounce
- After touchdown: "Got squirrely" on the tailwheel
- Just "didn't feel right"

Aborted Takeoff
- Surprised by effects of Density Altitude (first experience; there was nothing wrong with the plane, but felt very slugish so I aborted in time to settle back down by end of runway)
- Airspeed indicator "did not come alive" during takeoff roll (debree in pitot tube)
- Return to land: RPM dropped just below green range on upwind
- Return to land: Bees in the cockpit (began buzzing on upwind)

​

That's kind of what I remember. Curious what other pilot's reasons/causes are (whether the same or different)
 
Go around
- too fast/high
- practice
- bounced
- porpoised


Aborted takeoff
- engine died on runup
- rpms didnt feel right

Landing before reaching destination
-weather
-too dark for comfort
-fuel
 
Aborted takeoff:

Not making full power

One pax yelled "STOP!", turned out to have nothing to do with the plane (C208B)



G/A:

Deer on runway

40Kt direct crosswind before I was a CPL, took a few shots to get her down, rookie I know :lol:

Of course, for checkrides.
 
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I've only had one real life aborted T/O. I was in a Cardinal RG taking off from Huntsville, TX. Airplane lifted off but just hanging there, not climbing at all. I pulled the power and landed on the remaining runway. Turned out to be a clogged injector.

Closest I've had to immediately returning for landing was a door popping open on a Duchess departing Chino. It was the pilot side door, so I was able to get it closed while still in flight.
 
Other than what others have mentioned...

Aborted landing = 3 kids laying down on the tall grass runway. :eek:

Aborted TO = deer on the paved runway. :yesnod:
 
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Plane taking off on intersecting runway.
Mayday call from another aircraft at same field.
Deer at 2 o'clock and heads up (I buzzed em).
Car crossing mid-field. sloooooooooooooowly.
Ruts in grass after rain.
Training.
 
Three memorable go-arounds though I have had others.

1. My poor approach was about ready to cause a poor landing even though I had just made several good landings in a row that day. After I executed the go-around, my CFI said "yep, you are ready for your check ride". Seems like making a sound judgment like that was removed any lingering doubts he had about me.

2. Coyote on runway. It was a small grass strip surrounded by trees and I saw the coyote on very short final.

3. Jet ski suddenly darted out from beside a dock when I was about ready to land on a lake. I actually didn't go around but rather just added a little power to carry past the idiot and landed further down the lake which was plenty long enough.
 
Go around:
-controller-caused loss of separation on final (I called it; small fly-in, eating a Mooney's tail)
-self-caused lack of separation on final. Dang Cessnas and their speedbrakes!
-didn't like right seater's approach
-someone pulling out onto runway while on short final
-T/DP spread dropped to zero with concomitant adverse vis in a non-ifr 150 at night over unfamiliar rural (dark) terrain; hotel, restaurant and bar were awesome, completed flight next am in good vfr.
-exhaustion, too many flight hours that day..couldn't hold heading at night, starting to nod off. Awesome hotel and great sleep, here I am today.

Landing before reaching destination:
-destination went below mins (MYF)....d->SAN ils 09
-urgent bio-breaks (pax)
-to clear customs? (well, it wasn't our destination and we did have to land)
-discovered cheaper fuel elsewhere
-got a text, FAA on site, ramping everyone. (kidding)

Aborted takeoff/takeoff plans:
-wheel pant disintegration
- mag check fail on runup
-instructor/examiner hollers something or pulls a power lever
 
Whenever I say "holy ****!" out loud .... abort.

Whenever I bounce and say "holy ****! ... go around. :D
 
When the red balls on the power line at the end of the runway get too big!
 
I have done go arounds due to:

Moose crossing the runway
snow go crossing the runway
musk ox on the runway
caribou on the runway
people crossing the runway
several times due to cross winds because controls at the stops, rudder, ailerons and in twins, too much power differential and could not hold runway heading.


Aborted take off:

Moose crossing the runway
Snow go crossing the runway
caribou crossing the runway
people crossing the runway
cargo door coming open
one engine (twin) lost significant power just under rotation
helicopter suddenly turned to cross the runway seconds after he said he would wait for me to take off.
controls locked up, ailerons and elevator just stuck, could not move the yoke like the gust lock was in place. (it wasn't)
passenger fell out of the plane (ok, technically while taxiing and alcohol may have been involved, passenger, not me)
 
Because I feel like it.
There may be a logical\technical\rational reason. Or not.
It all depends on the instant and the mood.
Flying is all about the numbers. Piloting is about the senses.
Sometimes piloting will trigger a decision before all the numbers are in.
 
Only unusual landing abort I've made was my first attempt to land at Santiam Junction (8S3) because I felt the headwind was actually too strong (plenty of turbulence on final, too.) The wind would have made for a nice short landing, but I was more concerned that I'd have a dangerously strong tail wind on take off since landings are advised to the east and takeoffs to the west due to rising terrain to the east.
 
Go arounds:
Turbulence on short final such that I lost sight of the runway.
Too high on approach. (Used to be that an unfamiliar airport would somehow propel me vertically!)
All the usual ones, too: training, loss of separation, etc.

Aborts: Only one: not making enough power/rough engine in an Arrow. Others in the club squawked this but "could not duplicate". I was checking out in the Arrow with my CFI and he did not feel it either, but I stopped the flight right there and they did put it into maintenance.

It turned out to be a spalled cam which was replaced.
 
Real life go-arounds:

Mary flying into a grass strip in Iowa (Amana) when a whole herd of deer decided to graze on the runway. A low approach scattered them.

Me, flying into Janesville, WI on my student long cross country, when the controller cleared a guy to depart as I was on final approach.* Around I went.

Real life aborts:

Just one, in 21 years. We were in our Ercoupe, trying to depart from Keosauqua, Iowa's seldom-used grass strip. The Des Moines River runs alongside this runway, and the soil is very loamy, riverbottom material.

As I trundled down the runway, all 85 HP screaming, I kept hitting gopher mounds in that beautiful Iowa river bottom soil. I would get to 40, then Wham!, back to 30. Then up to 45, and Wham!, into another mound. Back to 40.

I finally realized that flying was not going to occur. What to do? Slam on the brakes. No FBO, no nuthin'.

The only thing I could think of doing was to taxi up and down the runway, 15 or 20 times, until I had tamped down every possible gopher mound. So I did, and it worked. Barely.

The Ercoupe is "stall-proof" because it is "elevator limited". As a result, you can't raise the nose out of the dirt. We made it over the powerlines, but it took clenching our butt-muscles as hard as we could to do it!
;)

* - With decades of hindsight, there was plenty of room for that guy to depart ahead of me. To my student eyes, however, disaster was imminent, so I went around, and endured the abuse from the controller...
 
Aborted T/O; engine wasn't making proper RPM/power, blew a tire. Aborted landings; 2 bounces (never let the third happen, third bounce is often the one that breaks things) on a few occasions, couldn't get the plane to line up due to excessive crosswind, traffic took the runway (opposite direction) for take off while I was on final.
 
addition:
strongish west Tx xwind at night, only one rwy lit
runway was out side window, not front, on approach - I am a crabber (it does give hints)
ran out of rudder trying to align long axis with rwy in flare
byebye; off to next apt with more HW component.
40g45 @ 90º - is apparently the limit of this a/c (or maybe me)
 
Cause for go-arounds?

-Departing aircraft pulled onto the runway when I was on short final.
-Faulting landing light - didn't realize it was faulty until late, decided to recalibrate my brain and try again.
-Unhappy with the setup-too high, too low, too turbulent, too fast, too something.
-Surprised by a gust.
-Surprised by a Cub landing on the reciprocal runway.

Never aborted a TO. Probably should have aborted one or two, but ID'd and corrected the problem and flew away, rather than pulling power. In hindsight, would have been better to pull power.
 
Aborted T/O:
Birds upwind and to the left about to cross my path.

G/A:
Ended up waaay too high on final because the Lady-Of-The-Panel started screaming "Terrain! Terrain! Pull UP! Pull UP!" just before I turned base.
LSA/Tailwheel plane in front of me flew a 50kt final yet took the full length of the runway to roll out.
 
Last summer there was a horrific wasp problem. They were EVERYWHERE. All. The. Time. I was preflighting a Seneca and I made my CFI kill like four or five before I would get near the door to go out to the airplane. We were very careful to not leave doors/windows open for any extended periods of time. Somehow one of the little buggers snuck in and made himself known (on MY visor!!!!) as I powered up. I stopped. Keyed the mic, told tower we'd need a delay now. Made CFI kill wasp. Told tower. She laughed. I'm glad I dealt with that issue on the ground.

I have some less memorable ones too. Aborted a takeoff because airspeed indicator didn't work. I've made a bunch of go-arounds because I didn't like approaches. A couple because I botched landings in a tailwheel.
 
register@teamandras.com said:
Aborted takeoff roll

Angry bee in the plane
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Been there!

Aborted Takeoffs:
Left pilot door unlocked
Left passenger door unlocked
Left BOTH doors unlocked!

Go Arounds:
New to me 182 and as a newly minted pilot and a gazillion factors gone wrong on approach that I bounced myself right into a go around. Was not smart enough to not bounce it but was smart enough to know to not to try and recover it!
 
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Zeldman said:
I have done go arounds due to:

Moose crossing the runway
snow go crossing the runway
musk ox on the runway
caribou on the runway
people crossing the runway
several times due to cross winds because controls at the stops, rudder, ailerons and in twins, too much power differential and could not hold runway heading.


Aborted take off:

Moose crossing the runway
Snow go crossing the runway
caribou crossing the runway
people crossing the runway
cargo door coming open
one engine (twin) lost significant power just under rotation
helicopter suddenly turned to cross the runway seconds after he said he would wait for me to take off.
controls locked up, ailerons and elevator just stuck, could not move the yoke like the gust lock was in place. (it wasn't)
passenger fell out of the plane (ok, technically while taxiing and alcohol may have been involved, passenger, not me)
Click to expand...

Sounds boring where you fly.
:lol:
 
Short strips and gusty winds combine to make most of my go-arounds. It's not unusual to make 3-4 approaches into a strip hoping to catch the gusts right and take it to the ground. Back in civilization the only go-arounds I've ever done were from **** poor planning in strong crosswinds (once) and because somebody in front of my decided to monkey around and not clear the runway in time for me to touch down even though they knew there was trailing traffic (twice).
 
I've rejected a takeoff due to the ASI not coming alive.
 
flyingron said:
I've rejected a takeoff due to the ASI not coming alive.
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I've not had the ASI come alive a couple of times in Ag planes, once due to bug and once due to a heavy rain shower that had just passed, and continued the take off. Trying to stop 700 gallons on a relatively short strip in a tail dragger seemed like the greater risk than just continuing flying and coming back to land after empty. I really don't look at the ASI much anyway even on short final.
 
First real life G/A was a couple nights ago when runway lights when out on base to final and couldn't see airport. Wouldn't respond to the five clicks so I have to break away and try again. Good thing to happen when practicing for currency.
 
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flyingron said:
I've rejected a takeoff due to the ASI not coming alive.
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My tailwheel training and sign-off was all done in straight tail taildragger 150 that had a broken ASI. Disconcerting at first but it turned out to be a good way to learn.

My one and only aborted wheel takeoff was because my CS prop surged on the takeoff roll. I back taxied and did a couple of prop cycles on the roll and continued the flight. I did have to abort a float takeoff once. That was my fault. Hauling bricks and I loaded it too far aft CG. Once on step the plane was porpoising badly. That one scared me. I returned to the dock and adjusted the load. Lesson learned.
 
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Go around ;to high/low, cross wind, bounced landing, bear on runway, tower called for go around due to separation (Super Cub landed long and missed turn out)

Aborted; ASI not working twice, engine not making power, dumb a** left control lock in(never again)
 
flyingron said:
I've rejected a takeoff due to the ASI not coming alive.
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Ditto, except it did come up to around 40, and then sunk back to zero. Most likely a bug.

Most exciting in-flight abort was due to weather while flying with my wife. Went from somewhat cloudy but with 10 miles visibility to an instant downpour. We had just overflown an airport that was around 2 miles behind us, so pulled the power and did an instant 180 to head back and land. Took some time to get the runway in sight. Oh, I would say maybe 1 mile visibility -- ball park estimate.
 
Primary training, simulated them, and once there were some birds on the runway at 87Y so that was a "real" one.

Aborted a takeoff in my dad's brand new airplane when the Rotax's gearbox started to sound like someone had tossed some rocks inside it.

Couple weeks ago I came in behind and MD80, approach was normal and just as I crossed the REILs the airplane ballooned about 20 feet uncommanded. That was an automatic go around. Figure it might have been some wake.

Then of course there's the most common reason I have to do them, coming in too high and/or too fast.
 
Henning said:
I've not had the ASI come alive a couple of times in Ag planes, once due to bug and once due to a heavy rain shower that had just passed, and continued the take off. Trying to stop 700 gallons on a relatively short strip in a tail dragger seemed like the greater risk than just continuing flying and coming back to land after empty. I really don't look at the ASI much anyway even on short final.
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Yeah, no problem stopping this time. I've lost it on rotation (it read rotation and then droped to zero) and flew on to the maintenance shop.

Departing VKX right after 9/11 (before the FRZ procedures were established just when they let me get my plane out), I noticed the aircraft broke ground at an odd speed and then realize I had a plugged static system. ATC confirmed the mode C was wonky as well (as expected) so they told me to stop altitude squawk and proceed out of the airspace. The only fun was guessing when I was below the gear speed on the Navion (87 knots). But given the AWOS winds and the GPS ground speed I figured I had slowed down sufficiently. Fortunately the destination field had a 5500' runway so coming in a little hot wasn't an issue.
 
Henning said:
I've not had the ASI come alive a couple of times in Ag planes, once due to bug and once due to a heavy rain shower that had just passed, and continued the take off. Trying to stop 700 gallons on a relatively short strip in a tail dragger seemed like the greater risk than just continuing flying and coming back to land after empty. I really don't look at the ASI much anyway even on short final.
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700 Gallons?! :yikes: What were you flying?
 
Forgot a few:

No airspeed - forgot the big red hangy thing with 'remove before flight' written on it.

Dog crossing the runway : scared the foo out of both of us.

Why did the chicken cross the runway? (that one happened to someone else)
 
My favorite go round was on a day so windy the airport assumed there was no way anyone would be flying. I was on short final and the maintenance guy pulled onto the runway with a truck to check the lights. He had no radio and wasn't looking for traffic but buzzing the top of his vehicle got his attention.

I was mostly upset because it was so rough it was like wrestling an alligator to just make a trip in the pattern. Got a good workout on that one
 
Scenario: Flying light twin with an instrument student under the hood on 1/2 mile final for ILS approach at 300 agl at tower-controlled airport.

A Cheyenne had reported in earlier for landing and was told to cross at mid-field and enter left downwind #3 behind Seneca (me) on 1 1/2 final on the ILS. I was following a C152 already on the runway. Good so far. I saw this Cheyenne when about 1 mile out and he was on downwind just about abeam my left wing. Good so far. My attention went back to my student's progress down the ILS when suddenly I heard a loud noise and a split second later my windshield was filled with the undercarriage of the Cheyenne in a steep left turn to final. If I could have freeze-framed that sight, I could have counted EVERY rivet on the under carriage of that plane. Not good! He was RIGHT on top by maybe a foot. Immediately I pushed the throttles forward and pulled back hard to a climbing left turn full well expecting my right wing to hit his right elevator. Luckily his speed gave us just the clearance we needed to not become 3 fatalities over a populated area.

Reported to tower once we were established (they hadn't seen him cut me off) and said we had some paperwork to do. Short version now: saw tower supervisor the next morning to fill out the paperwork (they were just about at a shift change the afternoon before and asked if we could do it in the morning). He told me he had had a phone call yesterday afternoon from a school teacher walking to her car. She heard the planes overhead and looked up to watch. Told him she saw 2 planes almost collide with one taking drastic action to avoid the other (guess who!). Radar returns could not separate us. Through contacts with someone who knew someone who knew the pilot (no names here) found out this guy had several complaints against him. All I had to hear to go after him. He lost his ticket forever. He was a former Navy pilot and in his mid 60's.

I've thought about this often and finally realized there was nothing else I could do. You would think a guy from Piper would know what a Seneca looked like. Somebody was watching over us that day. I always taught my students in that Seneca to do approaches at 120 KIAS. If we had been slower because of the way I hauled that Seneca back up we probably would have gone into a departure stall at the slower airspeed.

All of my other go-arounds have been simple and normal but this one lives in my mind forever. And I want it to stay that way.
 
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Rejected exactly one take-off, some sort of bugs in the pitot-staic system, no airspeed. Not that I couldn't have flown the airplane without it.

Only one go-around really stands out in my memory, that one was at Oshkosh in the middle of everything. Fun flying. I don't go around very often, I can stuff my Cherokee into just about anything.
 
Add wind shear to aborted takeoffs. I aborted a takeoff at the Piseco airport (NY) due to strong downdraft/wind shear coming off the Mountain to the west. The Cherokee before me took off fine, as did I moments later. During my first takeoff roll "lift" wasn't happening at the expected rate.
 
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