V-Flyer

... presumably a congested runway, but weird to see a 346, engines full pelt, flying low and climbing diagnonally over the airport! Hopefuilly it didn't worry those on board to much!

I've taken over 100 flights, and never had a go-around..

We've had three or four go arounds at LHR it seems to be getting more frequent. The best was just as we were just reaching the threshold and then had to go around as there was a runway incursion. Certainly something to be on a 744 upper deck to see the ground suddenly appear as you descend through the clouds and then suddenly you start heading back up.

My only go-arounds on commercial aircraft so far (of which there are two) have both been on G-VELD, once due to the runway at BOS still being occupied, and the other at LHR due to bad weather and high winds.

I believe there's at least one go-around most days at LHR.

Mike

Still waiting for my first go around. Have heard that they are pretty 'common' at BOS for some reason.

We had one at LHR last year coming home from SFO on BA, police chopper going to a M25 incident in the way.

Had one approaching Vancouver on an AC 747. Was a fair way out though as we must've been a good 1000 ft up when the engines spooled up again. I had thought we were a bit high but the captain came on blaming ATC, but then lo and behold on the next approach we were significantly lower and landed safely!

I had one on VS at BOS too.

TOGA's are more common at airports that are prone to adverse weather systems. I would have thought logically that airports with shorter runways may also experience more due to pilots not getting onto the tarmac early enough.

I've had a go around at San Fran once, that was great, going right over the city getting splendid views.

You should try going to Gibraltar, must be the most common place for go arounds, due to the wind whipping round the rock. When I worked for GB I had loads of very scary landings there and countless go arounds.

When GLA last experienced severe gales, a month or two ago, I was able to watch about half a dozen from my living room window. It looked kind of shocking actually. I would not have liked to be on those flights. The aircraft were on their usual casual run into GLA and then suddenly shot diagonally upwards in the blink of an eye. When it kept happening repeatedly I thought I was going mad or seeing things. The gales were horrific. Everything not tied down was flying around outside.

I once landed at EDI in gale force winds. It was a female captain. I was really impressed with the job she did in getting us down, but of course the fix is to fly faster leading to quite a thump when we hit the tarmac.

We had one going into LAS in an A340, it became obvious that the pilot was having trouble lining up for the landing, we were banking left to right, engines roaring and dimming, then got very close and pulled up and around. We were told that there was a plane in front of us that didn't clear the runway.

You should try going to Gibraltar, must be the most common place for go arounds, due to the wind whipping round the rock. When I worked for GB I had loads of very scary landings there and countless go arounds.

My very first flight in 1974 was into GIB got in ok on a trident 3 but a week later it couldn't land because of cross winds and had to divert to Tangier.We were flown on a Vickers Viscount to Tangier to pick up the flight home, only time I got to fly on an old prop bird.

Originally posted by jaguarpig
only time I got to fly on an old prop bird.

I flew once on a Capital City Airlines Shorts360 from LTN - interesting on a windy day with that high runway!

I had a go-around on Monday (VS2). I'm not sure how low we were (I was snoozing in the middle seat), but it didn't feel too dramatic. The captain came online and said...

'Well, as I'm sure you've noticed we're going to have the pleasure of each others company for another 10 minutes or so, because a Scandinavian airline was too lazy to vacate the runway!'

It made me chuckle

Had two at LHR and two at SFO ...

SFO does experience strong winds at times, about twice in 100 or so flights I've even landed on the short runway, and twice have had go arounds. It also has parallel runways south to north where two flights can land almost at the same time - they usually stagger them a bit. I did have a family member land on VS19 once and the KLM flight basically accelerated in, and they could see passengers out of the window on the other plane; seems like KLM was trying to get in ahead of VS, and succeeded, as VS had to go around. That made the papers

One LHR go-around was on a flight in the days after the whole 'liquid crisis' at LHR in 2006 - a zoo from start to finish, as you can imagine, delayed five hours leaving (never been more grateful to be in the lounge at SFO), crazy boarding, flight packed as BA had canceled one of its two flights, and to top it all we get to Heathrow and have a nice landing experience due to an Air France plane being somewhat in the way ... a lot of very distressed fliers that day, I can tell you.

Originally posted by mcnaugha
.......but of course the fix is to fly faster leading to quite a thump when we hit the tarmac.

This has got me thinking - dont know if any pilots on here can help with this? Surely if you are going faster the wings are generating more lift so you are less likely to hit the ground with a thump.Conversely if you are travelling slower the lift from the wings is less so you hit harder - or is my Physics flawed! (This assumes of course the same angle of approach)

One of my favourite memories of a hard landing was on a BMI shuttle from LHR to MAN. After we had 'landed' the Snr cabin crew announced 'well ladies and gentlemen you might have noiced that we have just collided with the runway here in Manchester' - not sure how impressed the Captain will have been, but it raised a laugh!

This has got me thinking - dont know if any pilots on here can help with this? Surely if you are going faster the wings are generating more lift so you are less likely to hit the ground with a thump.Conversely if you are travelling slower the lift from the wings is less so you hit harder - or is my Physics flawed! (This assumes of course the same angle of approach)

Yes, speed will generate more lift, but faster equals more force on landing. Compare it to driving a car fast over a speed bump, or even try throwing yourself at a wall as hard as you can. In both cases, it's much nicer to go as slow as possible.

In terms of the physics, you can remain airborne at slower speeds (even at the same altitude) by using control inputs. As you descend you will notice the flaps lowered on the wings. This generates more lift allowing the aircraft to fly slower. Just prior to touch down the pilot will flare the aircraft (raise the nose) which will generate even more lift allowing for an even slower landing (and also ensure landing on the main wheels and not the nose gear, but that's a different discussion).

Rule of thumb. The slower the air speed, the gentler the landing.

Originally posted by Flyoilybird
After we had 'landed' the Snr cabin crew announced 'well ladies and gentlemen you might have noiced that we have just collided with the runway here in Manchester' - not sure how impressed the Captain will have been, but it raised a laugh!

Reminds me of the man who was quoted after the BA 777 crash landed at LHR, who said he simply thought it was a particularly heavy landing!

Thanks Baldbrit for the xtra info. I too had a very good go around at SFO once, apparently a popular spot for it, on a VS 747 which was really quite close to the ground then headed out into the Pacific very rapidly and with much noise. People in the back were gasping and some exclaiming ... but as always it was simple runway congestion that led to the aborted landing.

Originally posted by stoneman
We had one going into LAS in an A340, it became obvious that the pilot was having trouble lining up for the landing

Hmm; 340 doesn't go to Vegas and quite how you tell a pilot is having trouble on his approach I don't know.