To land or not to land, that is the question...
I am quite puzzled by some of the posts I read in this so-called ”professional” pilot site.
If you for any reason consider a Go Around in a functioning airplane, anything else then a routine manoeuvre, regardless of the type of aircraft you are flying, seat position upfront, company etc., then sorry, but you should not be there in the first place.
If you consider the Go Around to be a stressful emergency like event, you should practice it some more, either in the sim, by chair flying it or ideally in the aircraft if you ever get the chance. God airmanship dictates that you know your own limitations and that you actively seek to become better/stronger in those areas.
If you are concerned about filling out paperwork due to a Go Around, regardless of why you have to do so (collecting data or justifying), and therefore elect to avoid Go Arounds when ever possible, then you should re-think the concept of airmanship. Furthermore, a wrong decision to avoid a Go Around where it was called for, would at best scare you and bring loads of paperwork your way. The other end of that scale is the end of your flying career the “ugly” way…
Pilots and controllers are all humans and they all make mistakes. I will be the first to admit that I make mistakes. Making mistakes is not always a bad thing, as long as the mistakes made are new and that the mistakes made results in new knowledge, which is shared.
Do you know the old joke about the difference between a pilot and a controller? When the pilot makes a mistake, he dies – when the controller makes a mistake, the pilot dies!
Even though this joke is very real, I believe that in the case of a Go Around an error on the side of the controller issuing the instruction is an error on the “better safe then sorry” side of the scale.
If a pilot wilfully decides to ignore the order, maybe because he thinks he possesses total situational awareness, then he should maybe consider leaving a tad of his ego at home, next time he goes to work. The tricky thing about situational awareness is that you only know when you have had a brake-down in your situational awareness, the instant that you start to regain it.
I know that my “company” has a slightly different pattern of operation then most commercial companies, but most of the going out from/into an airfield part is probably pretty much the same. Our SOP stipulates that a Go Around shall (not should) be performed anytime it is required for the safety of flight, regardless of the reason (ordered by ATC, bad approach etc.) and regardless of when it is required (even during flare or touchdown).
Furthermore our SOP describes how to perform a low approach and when to perform one. A low approach is to be performed if ordered by ATC, if on short final at 100’ AGL and with no clearance to land (unless ATC tells you to expect late clearance) or anytime the pilot deems it necessary to perform a low approach. The low approach itself is described in the SOP as an overshoot of the RWY not lower then 100’ AGL and offset slightly to the right of the RWY. The 100’ AGL minimum is to avoid any other traffic on the RWY (mind you an Airbus 380 fin reaches close to 75 feet up in the air), and the offset part is intended to improve the pilot(s) view of the RWY over the nose of the aircraft.
Last but not least, if you are one of those so called professionals, whom have managed to puzzle me during this debate, I sure hope that on the night when I for any reason happened to end on the threshold of the runway you are approaching (we all make mistakes even I do), and the controller instruct you to Go Around, You comply without hesitation or delay, thereby avoiding being the last slice of cheese with the holes aligned. If on the other hand you chose to ignore the controller’s instruction, I hope that the pure bastard in front of you or the pure bastard sitting in the cabin behind you is not me….