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Old 21st Oct 2011, 08:37
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Denti
 
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I might have to elaborate here. First off, the original question was how far are you allowed to continue below any minimum or a point along the approach path without a landing clearance. I doubt it is anywhere legal nor sensible to continue to touchdown without a landing clearance.

Of course many airlines have quite a few restrictions which require a go-around some technical, some SOP driven.

For example in my outfit a go around is absolutely mandatory if not established at 1000ft (500ft during a circling approach), established means final configuration, power set and all checklists completed. A quite common condition.

And then it was clarified by the company recently that it is legal to continue the approach below minimum if visual conditions are met without having a landing clearance. But a go around should be initiated at 50ft if no landing clearance is received by that point to avoid touching down during the balked landing. Before that we had a lot of go-arounds at minimum even with a warning for late landing clearance.

If a landing clearance is received a landing can be aborted until the thrust reserver is opened, after that we are committed to continue the landing and rollout (reversers can be opened at 10ft RA on the 737, that is not recommended though).

A go-around is of course a completely non-issue and a normal maneuver which any pilot should be capable of during the approach at any time.
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