Question of aborted landing after instrument approach

A couple of weekends ago I was at Half Moon Bay Airport (KHAF) a
non-towered field near San Francisco, CA. It was a beautiful, sunny,
Sunday afternoon, so that traffic pattern was full. I made calls in
each leg of the pattern, except base and final, because I could not get
a word in edgewise. Mostly, this was due to some people greeting each
other, talking about the airport restaurant and generally getting
chatty on frequency. As I was on short final, about 20 feet above the
runway, some idiot announces his intention to take off, and rolls onto
the runway and guns it. I had to abort my landing. Honestly, I don't
think he ever saw me, even after I when I sidestepped the runway and
we were both in the air together, parallel.

I was incredibly annoyed, but because I saw the whole thing happen and
was able to react, I was didn't think of my life having been in danger.
I mostly just cursed the lousy airmanship all around the airport that
day. [ NOTE: just because you don't hear a radio call does not mean you
are free to not look for aircraft in the pattern. Hell, calls get
stepped on, and radios aren't even required at an airport like HAF. ]

Later, though, I started thinking about how this might have played out
if I had been on an instrument approach. Say I was on an ILS (HAF has
none, but pretend) at minimums, and I had to abort the landing after
the MAP. The weather is way below circling, so I need to get back up
again. It's too late to fly the missed. What can I safely do? The only
thing that comes to mind is to fly a departure procedure like an ODP.

Is that the correct procedure? I'm embarassed that this wasn't covered
in my instrument training, or that I have forgotten it. It certainly
seems that if you are going to fly an approach into an airport that has
an DP, it behooves you to have it out in case you have to abort after
having descended below/past the DH/MAP.

What is the correct way to deal with this scenario?

-- dave j
-- jacobowitz73 --at-- yahoo --dot-- com

wrote:

Later, though, I started thinking about how this might have played out
if I had been on an instrument approach. Say I was on an ILS (HAF has
none, but pretend) at minimums, and I had to abort the landing after
the MAP. The weather is way below circling, so I need to get back up
again. It's too late to fly the missed. What can I safely do? The only
thing that comes to mind is to fly a departure procedure like an ODP.

If conditions were that low, no VFR aircraft would be taking off, and no
IFR aircraft would be released until you landed or canceled IFR.

--
Peter

wrote:

Is that the correct procedure? I'm embarassed that this wasn't covered
in my instrument training, or that I have forgotten it. It certainly
seems that if you are going to fly an approach into an airport that has
an DP, it behooves you to have it out in case you have to abort after
having descended below/past the DH/MAP.

What is the correct way to deal with this scenario?


You fly the published or assigned missed approach. As long as you had
sight of the runway and legally descended below DH/past the MAP the
missed approach still applies. This is not as unusual a case as you
might think, besides a runway incursion you can also lose sight of the
runway/approach lights after having seen them and descended below the DH
or you can lose sight of the runway while flying a circling approach.

- Ray

ATC will not issue a clearance to the departing traffic until you have
landed and cancelled your flight. So the scenario you propose is
unlikely to happen when weather is below VFR. However, you could
encounter an animal or some other obstruction, in which case you will
have to abort the landing. I think it is ok to fly the missed approach
procedure because you will not be that far from the MAP. On a precision
approach, you cannot CONTINUE the approach after DA, but that doesn't
mean you have to be on a climb immediately after DA. You are allowed to
descend below DA while configuring the airplane for the missed
approach. So, I would suspect that the protected area for the missed
approach must also include a climb from the runway elevation. Someone
more familiar with TERPs might be able to verify this assumption.



wrote:
A couple of weekends ago I was at Half Moon Bay Airport (KHAF) a
non-towered field near San Francisco, CA. It was a beautiful, sunny,
Sunday afternoon, so that traffic pattern was full. I made calls in
each leg of the pattern, except base and final, because I could not get
a word in edgewise. Mostly, this was due to some people greeting each
other, talking about the airport restaurant and generally getting
chatty on frequency. As I was on short final, about 20 feet above the
runway, some idiot announces his intention to take off, and rolls onto
the runway and guns it. I had to abort my landing. Honestly, I don't
think he ever saw me, even after I when I sidestepped the runway and
we were both in the air together, parallel.

I was incredibly annoyed, but because I saw the whole thing happen and
was able to react, I was didn't think of my life having been in danger.
I mostly just cursed the lousy airmanship all around the airport that
day. [ NOTE: just because you don't hear a radio call does not mean you
are free to not look for aircraft in the pattern. Hell, calls get
stepped on, and radios aren't even required at an airport like HAF. ]

Later, though, I started thinking about how this might have played out
if I had been on an instrument approach. Say I was on an ILS (HAF has
none, but pretend) at minimums, and I had to abort the landing after
the MAP. The weather is way below circling, so I need to get back up
again. It's too late to fly the missed. What can I safely do? The only
thing that comes to mind is to fly a departure procedure like an ODP.

Is that the correct procedure? I'm embarassed that this wasn't covered
in my instrument training, or that I have forgotten it. It certainly
seems that if you are going to fly an approach into an airport that has
an DP, it behooves you to have it out in case you have to abort after
having descended below/past the DH/MAP.

What is the correct way to deal with this scenario?

-- dave j
-- jacobowitz73 --at-- yahoo --dot-- com

Ray wrote:

You fly the published or assigned missed approach. As long as you had
sight of the runway and legally descended below DH/past the MAP the
missed approach still applies. This is not as unusual a case as you
might think, besides a runway incursion you can also lose sight of the
runway/approach lights after having seen them and descended below the DH
or you can lose sight of the runway while flying a circling approach.

- Ray

After looking at the AIM I found that I was wrong and the original
poster was correct - the AIM recommends flying the departure procedu

AIM 5-4-21(g)
"Missed approach obstacle clearance is predicated on beginning the
missed approach procedure at the MAP from MDA or DA and then climbing
200 feet/NM or greater. Initiating a go-around after passing the
published MAP may result in total loss of obstacle clearance. To
compensate for the possibility of reduced obstacle clearance during a
go-around, a pilot should apply procedures used in takeoff planning.
Pilots should refer to airport obstacle and departure data prior to
initiating an instrument approach procedure."

Learn something new every day...

- Ray

Ah, that makes sense!

However, let's say it was a snowplow or a deer, or a mechanical problem
with the landing gear (that's far fetched since the gear goes down
sooner -- or at least it does when I'm flying )

There still seems to be an issue.

-- dave j


Peter R. wrote:
If conditions were that low, no VFR aircraft would be taking off, and no
IFR aircraft would be released until you landed or canceled IFR.

Ray,

Thanks for finding the pertinent section of the AIM for us. I'm glad I
asked!

I don't have too many actual hours under my belt, but I've never
self-briefed a DP before an approach. Next time, I will -- at a minimum
to find out if there are any interesting objects I need to be aware of
in the departure path.

-- dave j

Ray wrote:
After looking at the AIM I found that I was wrong and the original
poster was correct - the AIM recommends flying the departure procedu

AIM 5-4-21(g)
"Missed approach obstacle clearance is predicated on beginning the
missed approach procedure at the MAP from MDA or DA and then climbing
200 feet/NM or greater. Initiating a go-around after passing the
published MAP may result in total loss of obstacle clearance. To
compensate for the possibility of reduced obstacle clearance during a
go-around, a pilot should apply procedures used in takeoff planning.
Pilots should refer to airport obstacle and departure data prior to
initiating an instrument approach procedure."

Learn something new every day...

- Ray

Bottom line. You do what is safest.

Some airports (Aspen is one), pilots use a "balked landing" procedure
for a missed below the MAP. At Aspen it is signifigantly different
than the missed due to terrain. (It is a climbing left hand turn and
the missed is a right hand turn). This requires the airline working out
the procedure.

As a private pilot, if I had to do a balked landing at Aspen, I
definitely would NOT make the right hand turn back to the MAP!! You
would run into a mountain. Things like this is why IMC approaches at
small mountain airports are bit dicey.

So it all depends. I agree a balked landing and a missed are different
procedures.

Also, I have landed on taxiways before, so that MIGHT be an option.
MIGHT...

"Doug" wrote in message ps.com...
Bottom line. You do what is safest.

Some airports (Aspen is one), pilots use a "balked landing" procedure
for a missed below the MAP. At Aspen it is signifigantly different
than the missed due to terrain. (It is a climbing left hand turn and
the missed is a right hand turn). This requires the airline working out
the procedure.

As a private pilot, if I had to do a balked landing at Aspen, I
definitely would NOT make the right hand turn back to the MAP!! You
would run into a mountain. Things like this is why IMC approaches at
small mountain airports are bit dicey.

So it all depends. I agree a balked landing and a missed are different
procedures.

Also, I have landed on taxiways before, so that MIGHT be an option.
MIGHT...


Not at Aspen, though. :-)

Fly the published missed approach procedure, that is what it is for.


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