Ciara at Gatwick
 

Ciara is definitely causing some problems at Gatwick today.

i don’t normally hear aircraft where I live, I live to one side of Gatwick so aircraft flying overhead here have generally missed their approach. Had several today already and one of them a couple of times. BA2166 flight a 777 (G-VIIX) going from Tampa to Gatwick has tried 3 times to land looking at FR24.

Stay safe up there boots and girls.

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Yay, 4th time lucky.

A potential new transatlantic record was set this morning - 4h 56m JFK-LHR which is pretty incredible. The jet stream has been glowing hard all week but must have been some pretty ridiculous ground speeds reported.

looking nasty out there. Lots of go-arounds with many deciding to go elsewhere. LTN also out of limits gusting up to 50kts across. One EZY has just diverted from LTN to STN, gone around at STN, diverted to LGW and done a go around there. Not pleasant.

Nope, I wouldn’t have fancied flying EZY76WJ today. A lot of relief when that one landed!

They are joining the approach for Heathrow as far as the Dartford Crossing, don't think I've seen that before.

The crews and ATC are earning their Kopeks today.

Qantas 787 got airborne from Heathrow for Melbourne, looks like it's coming back, currently in Biggin hold.

Question for pilots/ATC.

Whilst one or two of LGW's go arounds were from short(ish) finals and followed the usual climb on runway heading missed approach procedure others (see BAW61T or UAE15) abandoned much further back up the glideslope and were turning back towards holds as they crossed overhead the airfield boundary. I thought at first it was perhaps a question of not stable at 1000' but in fact it looks as if the decision was made nearer 2000', maybe around 5DME or what might once have been the Outer Marker. All seemed fairly consistent

Is there a 'gateway' at that sort of point where either stability or latest surface winds mandate a GA?

How does an approach work in these conditions?

Cant speak for other companies SOPs but my guess is they were given the wind with the landing clearance and decided against continuing the approach possibly because it was outside the AC limits. Obviously all speculation.

The go around procedure at LGW’s rwy 26L is “at 2000ft or 1NM inbound IWW, whichever comes LATER, turn left hdg 178, climbing 3000ft”. So depending where it happens, you either see airplanes waiting for 1NM before threshold to start the turn (earlier call on the approach), or waiting to reach 2000ft (later stages before touchdown). There might of course be deviation from the norm, either on pilot request (high workload, weather, tech issues) or ATC’s call (traffic flow).

poor EZY8042...3rd time unlucky...this is where the pilots & ATC earn their corn.

ATC at LGW normally turn you south straight away.

I'm sure Concorde did it quicker that that.

Subsonic speed record. Clever Dick. :E

The early missed approaches tend to be when the aircraft presents the crew with a predicted windshear warning.

Evening.

My partner was on the Emirates 015 from Dubai that eventually ended up diverting to Zurich after trying to get in at Gatwick. She facetimed me this evening from her overnight hotel in Zurich to say how things were on board during the few attempts to land and I tried my best to talk her through the decisions the pilots would of had to of made to throw the landing away and divert 100`s of miles away. I take my hat off to those pilots who will try and fly such a large bit of tin down to some tarmac, in such atrocious conditions, with company demands on their shoulders to get the fare paying passengers to the destination they wanted and paid for but with safety a priority and not ballsing up....coupled with having to divert and get said fare paying passengers/aircrew hotels, and then getting all the show back to blighty. I could hardly do that on my drive up to Gatwick to pick her up from Dorsetshireland with the wind and then head back down the M3 into severe gale force winds, torrential rain and wipers that were straining with the deluge, and my dashboard lighting up with "aquaplaning" every 300m ...... nope....I felt knackered driving 130miles so I do take my hat off to you chaps and chappettes who fly these large bits of tin.