Maybe I have a twisted idea of fun, though I was quite excited to have my second ever go around today on my Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Boston.
In my over two million flown miles I’ve only had one go around before this, which was last year on a Sri Lankan redeye from Mumbai to Colombo. Admittedly that one was a bit more exciting — there was limited visibility, it was the middle of the night, and we were flying over the jungles of Sri Lanka.
This one was a bit more fun since it was on an Aer Lingus Airbus 330 (heavy jet) on approach into Boston Logan this afternoon with beautiful weather.
On final approach there were great views of the harbor, and we approached normally until we were over the runway threshold, maybe 100 feet off the ground.
At that point the engines spooled up and we started climbing, with some pretty awesome views of the airport.
About five minutes later, as we leveled off at a few thousand feet, the captain advised us we were coming in a bit fast and he decided to execute a go around as a safety precaution, and that we should be landing in a few minutes.
Sure enough about 15 minutes after our initial approach we were back on the same approach course, this time touching down smoothly.
It’s always nice to be reminded of how powerful the engines of an Airbus 330 can be! And I’m certainly always thankful when the pilots make the decision to err on the side of caution.
A bit too fast?? :). Happened to me a few years back at LGA. Plane crossed the runway right in front of us!
I rode next to the chairman of Booz Allen, a management strategy company, on a flight into Narita a few years ago, and we had a go around, too. The chairman of Booz Allen's specialty is being the chief consultant to many major airlines around the world -- and he explained to me why the airlines dislike them so much and why pilots sometime find themselves in hot water for executing them.
During our...
I rode next to the chairman of Booz Allen, a management strategy company, on a flight into Narita a few years ago, and we had a go around, too. The chairman of Booz Allen's specialty is being the chief consultant to many major airlines around the world -- and he explained to me why the airlines dislike them so much and why pilots sometime find themselves in hot water for executing them.
During our flight we were landing in partly cloudy skies under lots of humidity. The man explained that the summer sun heats the ground unevenly over humid, cloudy skies and every pilot should be aware of that -- the bouncing around on a summer afternoon landing is usually the plane responding to the uneven air over the ground below you -- passing from shadow to sun.
The pilot was landing his 747 manually and he came in too slowly to compensate for the air's unevenness. We were falling short of the flightline landing and weren't going to reach the runway; so we had to take off, again.
My companion said, "Oh, he'll be written up for that foul-up. That just cost the company $20,000 in fuel."
Id do go-arounds all the time because i suck at landings. lol (im taking my PP license)
By runway design planes cross the treshold at 50ft (in ideal conditions and standard 3 degree glideslope), so must have been a very nice go around.
TOGA TOGA TOGA ... no wonder they have an acronym for it - gotta be a routine thingy!
The only one I had was in an UA A320 heading into Denver at night.... with Channel 9 on...
Well. You could hear it from 1A quite frankly... ;)
C130 aborted take off right at rotation, engine failure. Now that was scary.Parachute on my back was of no use at that point.
Once in a AA MD-88 because "erm, we're not sure if the landing gear is locked down or not". Makes you appreciate how old those planes are...
And last year in a virgin 340 into heathrow - apparently too close to the 380 ahead of us. Couldn't see anything out the window thanks to the weather.
My only go around was experienced sitting in a backwards facing seat on upper deck of of BA 7-4. Strange sensation to say the least.
Spooled up?
I should also add that, while they used to scare the crap out of me, I learned over the years that they're the most routine procedure pilots go through.
Had one not too long back during bad weather in ATL. Previous landed plane hadn't cleared the runway in time ...
Go-arounds used to scare the crap out of me. Let's see:
CLT-RSW -Poor visability, with a diversion to SRQ;
PIT-PHL, PIT-LAS, LAX-PHL, ORD-DCA, CLT-DCA - all runway incursions.
Most recently MSP-CLT - visibility fell below minimums.
There have been others - but these are the ones I remember most vividly.
Lucky, I have to say, I'll take my US go-arounds over your Colombo go-around any day.
Well in your 2 Million Miles flown, have you experienced an aircraft, on push back, reverse into another aircraft?
Happened to me the other day in Kuala Lumpur when a Malaysian Airlines flight reversed, and its wing clipped the plane next to it. Both planes were thus grounded and passengers had to be transferred to another aircraft.
June 2008, DTW-FRA on a Lufthansa A340, we had a go around on approach due to bad weather. Right passed the Frankfurt football stadium. Diverted to Stuttgart for an hour. Then on the way back to FRA, had another go around due to the aircraft ahead of us not clearing the runway. Have it all on video too. Pilot remarked that was his first ever double go around.
Best flight ever! My wife couldn't care less. Only draw back; it cut down our first class lounge time.
Had one last week from IAH-DCA. Cant say I was as excited as you were, though seeing Alexandria and Arlington twice from 500 ft was nice
I had one in Narita....it was scary.
everything was normal until maybe 2 seconds before landing, the whole plane felt like we got sucked into a tornado, flip to the right. we can see the runway super close below us, then we had a go-around. Scariest ever, thought i was gonna die that day.
Had two go arounds. One exciting and one not so much. Always some surprised faces!
Also had one aborted takeoff, at low speed. Just started rolling when the engines didn't continue spooling up I got anxious. Turned out a storm cell was just passing by. Back to the end of the line-up we went... :(