One question I would is pose is whether (generally) the industry is seeing more situations where aircraft are ending up "hot and high" and therefore missing the approach gate compared to ten or twenty years ago?
In the "olden" days before FMC path descents etc the whole thing had to be done manually. All the way down the descent you were working out the ACTUAL track miles to touchdown, what height you would like to be (this would include various parameters such as distance to slow up to min clean speed, wind component, anti ice on etc) and then adjusting as necessary (increase speed, speedbrake use, slow up and start to configure). You almost got to the stage where you could do this in your sleep (we often did!) and it became a matter of pride to end up at the commencement of the approach at the correct speed, height and configuration depending on the circumstances (IMC/VMC etc.)
I am all for all the latest gadgets which are now fitted to modern aircraft and indeed they should be used in an optimum way to make the job easier. But are we relying too much on things such as FMC predictions to correct the descent profile?
Yes we need to have clear parameters with respect to approach gates and whether to execute a go-around but surely this is a symptom and not a cure?Get the descent planning and execution right and understand how to vary the profile and the probablity of having to execute a go-around is greatly reduced.