Too high. Go Around. What's your PA?

Center_Mid

Center_Mid

Well-Known Member
Just thought I'd ask the 121 crowd. When you're too high and/or too fast on final and you make a precautionary decision to go around (not in an emergency situation), what do you say to the pax? I would assume very few of you say "I messed up." Would you perhaps cop to "we were too high/fast on the approach"? I'm guessing no. So what do you say to the folks in back as to why we're not landing even though it seemed like we were just about to hit the runway? Are there company policies about what to say?

I would think some viable options would be: (1) blame ATC, (2) blame preceding traffic for not vacating the runway quickly enough, (3) blame a sudden, mysterious gust of wind, or (4) tell everyone you thought they'd enjoy a complimentary sightseeing flight over the city. ;)
 
Center_Mid said:
Just thought I'd ask the 121 crowd. When you're too high and/or too fast on final and you make a precautionary decision to go around (not in an emergency situation), what do you say to the pax? I would assume very few of you say "I messed up." Would you perhaps cop to "we were too high/fast on the approach"? I'm guessing no. So what do you say to the folks in back as to why we're not landing even though it seemed like we were just about to hit the runway? Are there company policies about what to say?

I would think some viable options would be: (1) blame ATC, (2) blame preceding traffic for not vacating the runway quickly enough, (3) blame a sudden, mysterious gust of wind, or (4) tell everyone you thought they'd enjoy a complimentary sightseeing flight over the city. ;)
Click to expand...

Always Always Always ALWAYS be honest. ... It was ATC's fault.
 
never had to do that...so I don't know what I would say... probably some thing referring vaguely to a precautionary go around ...giggity... uhhhh right.... that's it!
 
As a passenger I've only seen 4 go-arounds, 2 on F9 and 2 on WN. One of the one's on Frontier we were too high, and the crew told the truth and said they came in a bit high and were going to try again. The second time we hit windshear on short final in DEN and they told us just that.

Both times on WN were coming into SFO, one time they were so high up on final that I thought we must be doing some odd approach to the 19s or something. The second time was the same thing, but they tried to save it, dove at the runway, and floated for maybe 10 seconds in ground effect, then they went around. Both times it was "Traffic on the runway". Uh...you mean the runway you floated halfway down? Bonus points on the second one when we taxied past all the WN gates into Alaska's alley way and they did a quick 360 and said "Last second gate change" with all 4 WN gates unoccupied.
 
If it's a missed approach due to traffic on the runway then I say just that. "The airport is busy and once in a while they misjudge how close we are to landing and so we were told to come back around."

If we really did go around because we were still too fast and too high, I say that too. Last time I made that PA it was easy because we had been trying to help ATC the whole time and it just ended up not working out.

We were landing in TYS. I said something to the effect of,

"ladies and gentlemen, as you noticed we were all set up to land when we climbed back up again and we're now coming back around to the same runway for another approach to land. Due to other aircraft in the area, the air traffic controller here left us higher up than usual and we told him we would do everything we could to help him out and get down to the proper altitude in time. Unfortunately we've had a tailwind the whole way down and that makes it more difficult for us to do that, and we waited until our decision point to see if it would work but unfortunately we still were above the speed we wanted to be at for a normal, safe approach so we're circling back around the airport and we'll be on the ground in about five minutes."

I would not favor lying on the PA because those in the back that travel on a weekly basis could probably easily see that you're too fast.
 
"The air traffic control tower wasn't ready for us to land yet, we're going to come back around for another approach, thanks for your patience". If I'm too high it's almost always because ATC left me at 4000 AGL on a 5 mile final with a 30 knot tailwind then decided to clear me for the visual. JoelT and I had this exact same situation going into CLE 4 or 5 years ago. I don't know what he said on the PA, you'd have to ask him :)
 
This happened Friday night when I was commercialing into SEA. The FO said something on the PA, but I didn't hear it. According to another FA I was traveling with, she said there was something wrong with the plane.
 
"Folks, you may have noticed we were approaching to land at our destination, however conditions weren't consistent with our company policy for the situation, so we have exercised the other company policy of avoiding getting into a situation where we have to exercise yet another company policy, so we'll be complying with our policy of landing as soon as we can get requeued for landing.

"As always, we know you have a choice in your air travel provider, and we sincerely thank you for choosing ChuckWagon."

"Cheers."

"Flight attendants, prepare for botched landing."
 
jynxyjoe said:
Always Always Always ALWAYS be honest. ... It was ATC's fault.
Click to expand...

This caused a big stink once. Captain did just this. A passenger actually wrote a letter to the FAA complaining about the control tower making the airplane do a go-around. FAA investigated and found out there was no issue with the control tower and sent a letter to the CP asking why the captain would blame it on ATC when it was not true... then a memo came out in a company news letter telling us not to tell passengers things that were not true. Don't necessarily tell them the entire truth, but don't fib.
So the moral of the story is, blame it on the FO. Who's he going to complain to?
 
"Vehicle on the runway"

"Flock of birds at the approach end"

Never admit to failure, unless someone calls you on it. Assume all the pax are idiots. :crazy:
 
I've heard that the pilot who screwed up is the one who has to do the PA. True or false?
 
Doubtful.

Besides, if the flying pilot screwed up the landing, do you take control of the aircraft, trust him NOT to screw up the PA when his heart is racing and he's feeling dejected, just to have him do it again? :)
 
Doug Taylor said:
Doubtful.

Besides, if the flying pilot screwed up the landing, do you take control of the aircraft, trust him NOT to screw up the PA when his heart is racing and he's feeling dejected, just to have him do it again? :)
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info! Oh and just so you know, it was a "she", and was a co-worker of yours. :D
 
You can't call a "she" an "it", that's sexist! :)

Someone JFK based?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top