Go Around

[Edinburgher]

From the start, I would just like to make it known that I'm not some journalist looking to make some sensationalist nonsense out of what I understand is a pretty routine event. However...

I was returning to Edinburgh last night on the late evening flight from Brussels, with BMI. Very enjoyable flight, despite a slight delay on departure due to air traffic restrictions. In the late stages of final approach (from the south-ish) the pilots elected to go around, due to the aircraft that landed before us failing to vacate the runway as promptly as expected.

Though a regular flyer, I am a bit nervous about the whole process, and this was my first go-around experience. I have to say it all seemed to be extremely professionally handled with first the cabin crew (there was only one as it was an Embraer 135 we were flying) informaing us as to what was happening and that the second approach and subsequent landing would take about 10 minutes. The pilot also provided more information once we were on the ground.

I know these events are not uncommon, but I was wondering as to who makes the go-round decision and at what stage - I assume it can be initiated by either the pilots or ATC? Also, despite it being a standard procedure, does it cause a lot of additional work for the pilots and ATC? Do you suddenly have to switch from approach controllers to departures and how does the new approach get sequenced to fit in with other approaching aircraft? I'm just interested to know, as finding out about the technicalities of commercial flying from this forum has helped to make me a lot less nervous about flying.

Thanks to the pilots and cabin crew on the flight who did an excellent job and were highly professional throughout.

[Olof]

Either pilot not happy with the progress of the approach can at more or less any stage call go around and the subsequent action would be to do a go around! Reasons might differ but blocked runways and poor weather are amongst the more common ones...There are different go around procedures for each airport and in general they are not too difficult to comply with. Since you quite rarely do a go around the workload can initially be quite high since your not expecting to do one. Numerous go arounds are however practised in the simulator so all pilot should really be up to speed with the procedure. Quite opposite what one might believe the hardest go arounds are often those with clear skies. When the weather is poor you are more mentally prepared for one. Let's say you get hot and high on an approach in really good condtions (you just mess up the approach). In this case the decision might be hard since you are the only one to blame and you think that you really should have made it down! Most pilots have been in that situation at least once...!:rolleyes:

[low n' slow]

I was discussing this with a captain on a flight a couple of days ago.
I asked him how many GA's he'd done in the past years and he came up with around 12 over a 3 year period. Not so often in other words.

I've made it my own procedure to always brief not only the missed approach procedure, but also go through the callouts and sequence of the actual procedure, much like the emergency departure briefing "any failures before V1...", "when going around I'll call flaps 7, set power, positive rate, gear up...". This makes it a lot easier for me to be on the ball so to speak.

I also asked him what the most common reason were for the GA's he'd done, and weather was to my surprise represented only by 2 or 3. As Olof explained, there are often other factors that call for a go-around, such as messing up a visual approach or traffic situations on congested airports.

/LnS

[411A]

Go-arounds (or overshoots, if you like) are sometimes a fact of airline life, and some pax certainly become concerned, altho they should not be.
A kind word from the FD often is desired, and appreciated.

The pilots who I am really surprised at, are the folks who don't go-around, when clearly they should...the 'lets land if at all possible' scenario is often a cause for concern...and a few incidents.
Better safe than sorry, IMO.

[ETOPS]

around 12 over a 3 year period :eek: :eek:

Am I doing something wrong here ? Only 2 jet transport go-arounds in 34 years :uhoh:

[Chesty Morgan]

Am I doing something wrong here ? Only 2 jet transport go-arounds in 34 years :uhoh:

I did 5 in 2 days once...Am I doing something wrong??!!!!

[Old Smokey]

People will quickly forget a go-around, but may talk for years about the consequences of failing to do so if one was necessary.

(The original words are NOT mine).

Regards,

Old Smokey

[perkin]

People will quickly forget a go-around, but may talk for years about the consequences of failing to do so if one was necessary.

Indeed, I'd rather spend an extra 10 mins airborne than land on top of something that hasnt vacated the runway quick enough. I've experienced 1 GA in something around 100 flights (as pax) in the last 18 months or so (and seen one from the ground, which was apparently precipitated by a balloon on the runway at MAN!!), so I guess they're not a frequent event. It was also quite a interesting experience, though much less 'extreme' flying than I had expected, just felt like routine handling, I've experienced higher bank angles and climb rates during 'normal' flight, didnt seem like anything out of the ordinary :)

[reverserunlocked]

They're more common than you might think.

Whilst the weather's been nice I've spent a bit of time at Manchester doing some spottting when time permits. Every single time I've been there there's been a go around, usually for the one ahead not vacating fast enough, and once for an inpromptu runway inspection.

I've probably been about four times in the last month for a few hours each time. Not a bad average, methinks.

[mikeyc618]

I fly out of Jandakot Airport in Western Australia. We handle more traffic than any other airport in the southern hemisphere handling something like 400,000 flights a year. For this reason go-arounds are very common. Only a few months ago I had 7 go arounds in two days. None of these were done due to a bad approach, rather they were due to aircraft failing to vacate the runway. Like someone said before, ide rather spend the time performing a go around as opposed to the risk of colliding with another aircraft on the runway!!

[hetfield]

A couple of years ago we had to fly two in a row at EDDF 25R. Weather was marginal CAT I but the guys/gals in front of us had some trouble leaving the runway. Wasn't easy to explain it to the pax why it hit us two times.:ouch:

[knobbygb]

Windshear? I know you guys in the big jets have windshear detection and warning (not in my Pa28 I'm afraid). How often do you go around because of possible windshear on a seemingly stable approach?

Reason I ask - I was lucky enough to spend a few days sunbathing on a balcony overlooking Corfu airport last week. Saw 4 go-aronds in 3 days, 2 due traffic not vacated but the two others were as follows: At the same time on two consecutive afternoons, aircraft seemingly stable on approach to rwy 17 but then went around just over the airfield boundry (about 200ft? due displaced threshold). Both aircraft rather than flying a circuit returned to land on rwy 35 with a 'seemingly' 15-ish knot tailwing (going off the sock at the southern end of the field. But by the time each had taxied in and parked the wind had switched to northerly and 35 was in use. Would this have been windshear over the 17 threshold as the direction was changing? Seems odd the wind changed direction within a few minutes after each occurance. Is this common, or more so at CFU than others? Just wondered realy - wasn't going to post until reading this thread.

[Richard Spandit]

CFU has a lot of terrain around and the approach to 17 is tricky. Sometimes it is elected to perform a missed approach if the aircraft is not stabilised by around 500 feet - this may mean the speed is too high, the aircraft is too high/low etc.
CFU is not the longest runway in the world and "floating" down it could result in something disastrous, therefore it is prudent to abandon the attempt to land and go again. RWY 35 has a slightly easier approach and also makes for a much shorter taxi which allows for more movements at the airfield. It is the preferential runway even with slight tailwinds.


Some modern jets have predictive windshear that can look ahead of the aircraft and sense whether windshear is likely to occur - this is normally a factor in areas where there is a high level of thunderstorm activity.