Go arounds

[Dave Siciliano]

We just had to go-around here at Addison as they tried to work a bonanza in in front of us and it didn't work. He had taken off from a near-by airport and was making a short hop to Addison. We were descending from altitude and were probably doing 150 knots. Tower decided to try to work him in in front of us. Even though we slowed, we could never see him until he approached the runway because he was so low.

No problem with the go-around; we were pretty sure it was coming, but it was after a four hour flight from South Carolina and one of my passengers really needed to get to the facilities! She was pretty put out when we did the aprupt maneuver and delayed our landing.

I really don't understand what tower was doing here. They know we were much faster and had been on a long flight. Why they tried to get a guy in that was going maybe 6 miles instead of having him wait a minute or square off base is beyond me, but, mine is not to reason why!!

Best,

Dave

 

[SteveinIndy]

I don't know what made me think of it but I looked over at my friend and I said "hey have you ever done a go around on a commercial flight?".

Anyone know how often go arounds actually happen in Part 121 operations? I've had several people ask me that and I've never been able to find a good answer. That said, I've only experienced one and that was in Europe.

 

[Skip Miller]

Anyone know how often go arounds actually happen in Part 121 operations? I've had several people ask me that and I've never been able to find a good answer. That said, I've only experienced one and that was in Europe.

I've had a go around in both a commercial airliner and a Falcon. For the first, the preceding plane failed to clear in time. For the Falcon, I believe it was poor pilot technique: we were too high and too fast for a short-ish runway.

-Skip

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Anyone know how often go arounds actually happen in Part 121 operations? I've had several people ask me that and I've never been able to find a good answer. That said, I've only experienced one and that was in Europe.

Same here- only one in Europe, I saw a truck on the runway as we went past

 

[SCCutler]

Hmmm...

...I'll readily press the "do-over" button as required, but (as Jesse notes) find it's required less frequently, the more experience I get.

I was on an Aeromexico MD80 which did two missed approaches in a row (at Monterrey), before successfully completing the third. It was fun, because I was near the front and the cockpit door was open, so I was leaning over and looking in as they flew it, and the electronic voice, "Minimums, minimums!" was readily audible. Good fun.

Of course, the fog grew thicker (and Leon, larger), and we ended up stranded in Monterrey overnight as a result, but Aeromexico put us all up at a hotel. Nice outfit.

 

[TMetzinger]

Anyone know how often go arounds actually happen in Part 121 operations? I've had several people ask me that and I've never been able to find a good answer. That said, I've only experienced one and that was in Europe.

Frequently, and for the same reasons. The breakdown of landing incidents/accidents in airlines is very similar to GA as far as root cause goes, though the actual number is much smaller.

I was on an NWA flight into Detroit recently and we went around twice. Both times the go-around was "early" in the approach (which made me happy from a safety standpoint), and was due to significant wind shifts in the descent.

 

[PittsDriver]

I was on final at BWI a few months ago flying a parallel final with a southwest jet that announced he was going around. The tower called him "Southwest xxx, roger that. Say the reason for going around." The Southwest flight "We were too high."

I almost keyed the mike for an anonymous transmission about smoking pot in the cockpit...

Here's a short video of my last go-around. I just happened to have the hat-cam running when the wind shifted from a nearly direct cross wind to blowing right on the tail. The nice thing about a Pitts is that there's a fool proof way to fix any landing situation - a straight left arm.

 

[Ddayle]

Recently at my home field(Auburn WA S50), I encountered an updraft over the parking lots on final so powerfull that even pitched down to 85 knts(max flap speed), max flaps,& throttle pulled off, I was still gaining altitude at 3-400 FPM. I needed three trys before I greased it in to the delight of my golfing buddies. No shame in a go-around, IMHO it is the mark of a smart pilot to know when to abort & try again.DaveR