Go around into CB area
 

Sitting on the tarmac in Pisa a couple of nights ago. There was a massive line of thunderstorms just north of the airfield. My highly experienced captain said he had never seen that much activity. Now to my question:

Wind was reported at 030/15G35 and the runway is 04R/22L. As I said the thunderstorms were just north of the airfield and no one in their right mind was going to depart rwy 04R and hit the CBs. But people were quite happy to shoot the approach to 04R with a potential go around due to the windshear reported and then ending up in the CBs.

What is your view on this? Are we just thinking that we will always land? A wise person told me to consider any approach to be with a go around, with the possibility of a landing instead of the other way around.

if there are no alternate missed approach routes possible -radar vectors around them for example....HOLD or DIVERT!!!!:\

HI,

My personal opinion will be since shooting an approach has a higher energy level than taking off, I suppose a Go-around would have a higher marginal of safety than taking off!!!

Further more, there are guidelines for shooting an approach and I am sure all pilots are aware of the guidelines as well as their own threshold before commencing an approach with a squalline on the G/A path!

My 2 cents worth,
lion-g

Hi,
In a situation like the one reported ,you come on final and see on the radar which is your escape route. If it does not coincide with the missed apprroach procedure , ask previously to the ATC the heading you judge better.
It`s quite normal when flying in tropical countries,where there ai lot of Cb activity.

A-3TWENTY

You can always inform the tower that in case of a go-around you won't be flying the published missed approach . . . (obviously give them an idea as to what you're planning on doing . . . )

It's ATC's job to accommodate this.

Yes but in Pisa not flying the missed approach procedure at night is not really an option. The great big mountains in front of you on go around off 04r see to that. I fly in to Pisa once a month or so and for the life of me can't remember the terrain to the south.

At my home base I'd be happy to make up my own procedure as I know for a fact there is no high terrain that could affect my go around and I'll just tell tower what I'm up to and they never mind.

But at Pisa no way. Hold at jessy and if necessary divert.

My view is that if you decide you are unable to safely carry out a different missed approach compared to the published missed approach to avoid the weather, taking into account any problems which you may have if you suddenly become single engined e.g that small hill ahead with two engines is no problem, but with one engine it becomes a very big problem, hold and then if need be divert. Better to be late and alive than arrive at the scene of the accident ahead of schedule.

[QUOTE]Yes but in Pisa not flying the missed approach procedure at night is not really an option. The great big mountains in front of you on go around off 04r see to that. I fly in to Pisa once a month or so and for the life of me can't remember the terrain to the south/QUOTE]

Haven't flown into Pisa for a while (fortunately!) - but I recall the engine out SID off 04 incorporate an early turn to the left - there's a rather large expanse of water off to the west . . . just food for thought, but certainly the more sensible option has been mentioned above - hold with the extra fuel you've taken (!), then head off somewhere else if it can't be safely flown . . .

Akara,

That's exactly where the cb's were....

The g/a turning R to the loc PIS was totally doable, after all, that's the same side that most visual approaches to runway 22L are conducted to. Just have to keep the speed back to ensure radius of turn that's all.

And I was bored, with no fuel too....

also,
if you're close to min fuel you could ask [if it exist, and it helps] for a runway change, and in an emergency demand it like that AAL flight did.

We landed at PHX one night in an MD80, We circled from the west landing to the west. On final approach to I think 26 we got an alert of east field boundry winds 090 30 knots. I went around and circled to 8. We touched down and all runway lights and tower com went down. We cleared the runway and heard the plane behind us say he had lost ILS and runway lights. Tower communications was out. He said I can't do the published missed approach but had to turn south because of weather. No response. 3 minutes later their backup com came on and we taxied to the gate and waited 2 hrs for the storm to pass. That is how you have to do it sometimes.