Go-around

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A go-around, overshoot or missed approach is an aborted landing of an aircraft which is on final approach.

Origin of the term

The term arises from the traditional use of circuits at airfields â€" a landing aircraft will first join the circuit pattern and prepare for landing in an orderly fashion. If for some reason the pilot decides not to land, he can simply fly back up to circuit height, and complete another circuit â€" in other words, go around again. The term go-around is still used even for modern airliners, though they do not use traditional circuit patterns for landing.

Although the terms go-around and missed approach are often used interchangeably, there is actually a very slight difference in meaning between the two terms. A go-around is the act of aborting a landing and climbing the aircraft away from the airfield. A missed approach is the procedure to be followed after the go-around, to navigate the aircraft to a safe altitude and position from where another approach can be commenced. As such it is the fifth (and obviously optional) segment of a standard Instrument approach procedure

Reasons for going around

The go-around procedure may be initiated either by the air traffic control or by the captain of the aircraft.

The air traffic controller will instruct the pilot to go around if there is an aircraft, vehicle or object on the runway. The captain will decide to go around if the aircraft is not lined up or configured properly for the approach, a landing aircraft has not cleared the runway, no landing clearance was issued, the runway is not visible by the time the aircraft reaches the decision height because of low visibility, or if other dangerous meteorological conditions are experienced on final approach (strong winds or microbursts).

Contrary to reports in the press, a go-around does not in itself constitute any sort of emergency (although it may on very rare occasions be in response to an emergency). Indeed aviation professionals are surprised and sometimes annoyed by the press' exaggerated reporting of what is a routine, safe and well-practised event.

The go-around procedure

When the pilot is instructed, or decides himself to go around, he will apply full power to the engines, adopt an appropriate climb attitude and airspeed, retract landing gear, retract flaps as necessary and follow the published missed approach procedure (a set path to follow in the event of a go-around) or the instructions of the air traffic controller.

Many modern aircraft such as the Airbus series use fly-by-wire systems with go-around modes that automatically set maximum climb power and pitch the aircraft for best performance. On older aircraft, the pilot performs the go-around manually. In a typical small aircraft, such as those found in general aviation, this might involve:
* applying full power
* adopting an appropriate climb attitude and airspeed
* removing one stage of flap if necessary
* checking for a positive rate of climb
* raising the landing gear, if the aircraft has retractable gear
* raising the flaps fully once a positive rate of climb is established and the aircraft is above a certain safe altitude
* remove carburetor heat, if on
* climbing back to pattern altitude
* advising control tower and/or other traffic about go around decision by radio

This is easily remembered by the mnemonic "5C's" -- Cram it, Climb it, Clean it up, Cool it, and Call it!, or sometimes the "5 Ups": Power Up, Nose Up, Gear Up, Flaps Up, Speak Up.

References

* avweb.com article

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