How often do you have to go around?

In simulation, the simulated ATC seems to be very inefficient at
spacing aircraft, because practically every fifth aircraft on landing
is told to go around. In fact, if you are told to follow someone in
for a landing, you can take for granted that he won't clear the runway
in time and you'll be told to go around. It's tiresome and
frustrating after spending a lot of effort to line things up nicely.

How often does this happen in real life? I should think and hope that
real controllers can space aircraft better so that it's rarely
necessary to abort a landing.

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Mxsmanic wrote:
In simulation, the simulated ATC seems to be very inefficient at
spacing aircraft, because practically every fifth aircraft on landing
is told to go around. In fact, if you are told to follow someone in
for a landing, you can take for granted that he won't clear the runway
in time and you'll be told to go around. It's tiresome and
frustrating after spending a lot of effort to line things up nicely.

It's rare. I can't recall ever being told to go around at Dulles and
I can recall only once having a Gulfstream sent around because I was
on the runway. It's more common at airports with a lot of instructional
activity. People don't clear the runway or mess up the spacing, or
don't take off promptly when cleared, etc...


I suspect the flight games throw in a few more unexpected incidents,
malfunctions, etc... to make the games more interesting.

Ron Natalie writes:

I suspect the flight games throw in a few more unexpected incidents,
malfunctions, etc... to make the games more interesting.

Well, it would be nice if there were a dial to change this. You can
reduce the amount of activity with other aircraft in MSFS, but you
can't control exactly how that activity is conducted.

Indeed, it would be nice to be able to select different airport
activity scenarios for practice. The specificity of instructional
activity that you mention is one example. A simulation of Oshkosh
might be interesting. And of course accurate simulations of extremely
busy, large airports--and tiny fields with incompetent local pilots
doing foolish things, perhaps.

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I've had to go around maybe ~10 times in the last 20 years....not counting a
botched landing or two (or twenty :-). Most common case is a plane deciding to
taxi all they way to the end of the runway instead of taking an early turnoff,
but I've had two-three cases of planes pulling onto the runway when I'm on short
final.

Ron Wanttaja

Yes, go-arounds are a relatively uncommon experience at the larger
airports. Most of the pilots/controllers coming into and out of busy
airports have been doing it long enough that the flow isn't disrupted
often.

"Ron Wanttaja" wrote in message
...
I've had two-three cases of planes pulling onto the runway when I'm on
short
final.

Ron Wanttaja


Don't you just hate that when that happens!!!

Ron Wanttaja wrote:
I've had to go around maybe ~10 times in the last 20 years....not counting a
botched landing or two (or twenty :-). Most common case is a plane deciding to
taxi all they way to the end of the runway instead of taking an early turnoff,
but I've had two-three cases of planes pulling onto the runway when I'm on short
final.

I've been lucky. I've yet to make a go-around "in anger" in 26 years.
I had one bozo cut ahead of me on final, but I let him know what he'd
done and how close I was and that we'd discuss it on the ground ... and
he decided to go around. :-)


Matt

I've ridden through several go-arounds on airline flights.
In one case I was a passenger going into [ DSM] on a DC-9.
The plane touched down just as a blizzard dumped a few tons
of snow, visibility drop to zero-zero and the PF/PIC decided
that he'd rather be in the air than on a runway blind at 140
knots.

I've made more than a few missed approaches when weather was
below minimums or I just could not find the airport. I have
made several go-arounds when a plane or car was on the
runway. I also have done many go-arounds as part of my
training and have set-up my students to do the same. A
go-around is safety valve, it is better than some accident.
Failing to go-around is a bigger "blot" on a pilots ego than
a properly and timely go-around.



"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
news | Ron Wanttaja wrote:
| I've had to go around maybe ~10 times in the last 20
years....not counting a
| botched landing or two (or twenty :-). Most common case
is a plane deciding to
| taxi all they way to the end of the runway instead of
taking an early turnoff,
| but I've had two-three cases of planes pulling onto the
runway when I'm on short
| final.
|
| I've been lucky. I've yet to make a go-around "in anger"
in 26 years.
| I had one bozo cut ahead of me on final, but I let him
know what he'd
| done and how close I was and that we'd discuss it on the
ground ... and
| he decided to go around. :-)
|
|
| Matt

On Sun, 15 Oct 2006 02:37:23 GMT, Matt Whiting wrote:

Ron Wanttaja wrote:
I've had to go around maybe ~10 times in the last 20 years....not counting a
botched landing or two (or twenty :-). Most common case is a plane deciding to
taxi all they way to the end of the runway instead of taking an early turnoff,
but I've had two-three cases of planes pulling onto the runway when I'm on short
final.

I've been lucky. I've yet to make a go-around "in anger" in 26 years.
I had one bozo cut ahead of me on final, but I let him know what he'd
done and how close I was and that we'd discuss it on the ground ... and
he decided to go around. :-)

I had one case where I was #2 on final, and the guy in front of me decided to
start a 360...probably for spacing with the plane in front of HIM. Guess he
figured since he announced his intentions on the radio, it was safe...never mind
guys like me who were NORDO. I just gave him a friendly wave as he went by.
Don't know if he finished the 360.

Had a plane cross UNDER me when I was on final, and just a year or so ago,
someone do the same trick on base. The first case was back when I was NORDO,
but the second case I wasn't.

Ah, well. There's a flight school at Boeing Field (one of the busiest GA
airports) who brings their dual students to our (uncontrolled) field for
training. They shut their radios down so all the other calls don't interfere
with their instruction. I was on the Airport Board then, and we sent them a
nice letter asking them to monitor the frequency. They told us that, according
to the FARs, they didn't have to.

Ron Wanttaja

Just do what you'd do in real life - slow down. When you find yourself
closely following traffic to the runway, you can create more time
between you and the guy in front by slowing down. Of course, this may
cause trouble for the guy behind you, but that's his problem. You can
also fly S-turns to create additional spacing.



On Oct 14, 10:41 am, Mxsmanic wrote:
Ron Natalie writes:
I suspect the flight games throw in a few more unexpected incidents,
malfunctions, etc... to make the games more interesting.Well, it would be nice if there were a dial to change this. You can
reduce the amount of activity with other aircraft in MSFS, but you
can't control exactly how that activity is conducted.

Indeed, it would be nice to be able to select different airport
activity scenarios for practice. The specificity of instructional
activity that you mention is one example. A simulation of Oshkosh
might be interesting. And of course accurate simulations of extremely
busy, large airports--and tiny fields with incompetent local pilots
doing foolish things, perhaps.

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