Whirlybird
Bad day - not at all.
Re my comments about go arounds - I see them as completely sound. Not flame at all. I was annoyed yes and admit that set the tone - but lets face it I try very hard to ensure students understand a go-around should be initiated when:
Approach is not stable
Runway is not clear, or is possibly not going to clear
Not cleared to land (if reqd)
If you are unhappy in any way about the approach.
I would suggest that 100-200' as a minimum height is appropriate for 'go around if not cleared by'.
Unfortunately I think your own comments show precisely the thing I am trying to train people against - continuing approach long after a go-around should have been commenced - and you do suggest this is (paraphrasing) 'ok because you know the a/d'. It s*not* all right....
As for questioning airmanship - every pilot should question it in themsleves and others. Personally if I stuff up Ill put my hand up straight away...ask Brize when I blundered into their airspace some time ago at low level...I put my hand up and took the bollocking (quite rightly so) - I called them whilst airborne even & had the phone number to call on my landing......im not perfect...far from it...but on the ground... forums like this can be used to help people formulate opinions about what would be the best thing to do...on the flight I just mentioned - I can list probably 3 major things I screwed up ith that put me in that situation...safe..well yes - at no point was the safety of any aircraft compromised...but it still matters doesn't it - because at that point it showed that I had made some bad judgements - now I have learnt from them...isnt *that* what its all about - and isn't that what we should be promoting here - learning and improvement.
One of the things I seek to improve is that every pilot should understand there is no pressing need to land regardless - do the right thing - if you arent happy go around... no problem there...
As for the ATCO...well its a two way process - some atc are good some are bad - some are incredible (hello brize, cardiff, gloucester and D&D!), if an incident occurs you must complain...I would certainly be phoning the SATCO to have a chat and see what the hell was going on...ok maybe not a formal complaint as an a/c was not endangered - ok I take that back - hasty annoyed typing does me no favours...