When was the last time you went around?

T
PaulS said:
You should tell her not to give you the stare, you just saved her life.
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Tell me about it. Had to have my friend explain why it was good judgment. Sheesh. I partly blame myself for not explaining that go around a do happen and to semi prepare he for it. Lol
 
About a week ago. Coming into my home airport where I land all the time and never have any issues, I suddenly forgot how to land a biplane! I added a touch of power and had enough runway left I could try again, but thought better of it and went around. It was the right choice and I seemed to remember how to land on the next attempt!
 
Had TWO go arounds on my last flight on Sunday. I had just changed oil, did a few laps around the pattern to test thinges out. All seemed good so decided to try a power off 180. Was gonna be 150ft short...go around #1.

I hate ending on a bad note so give it another go. I got this one...NOT! About 50ft short :( Go around #2. This is getting old.

Try it again..landed about 300ft past numbers. Did one more and better at about 500ft past the numbers.

I think there was more wind aloft and it was from opposite the base direction.

On the first failed attempt I pitched up really hard for best glide and I'm wondering if I should have held it level into the wind and kept my speed over the ground as it bled off to best glide.

On the second failed attempt I probably would have made it but added flaps too early (dumb).
 
Flight into Oshkosh, wherever I landed out (Wau___ something). Bolluxed the first approach, came around. approach still sucked but I stuffed it in. Kind of a bad habit, that.
 
2 in the last 3 months: one I was flying solo, doing T&Gs and got a gust of wind that put me to the left of center line. Another one was a fine approach the but tower asked me to go around due to one guy taking forever to leave the runway. All in a C172N
 
Back in February.. Was flying back into VGT in a cherokee 180.. Winds picked up to 340@17G32 landing on 30. Made the first pass, gusts made xwind correction difficult. Was getting blown off to the left of the runway.. Went around at about 10' off the deck with the seat cushion sucked up into my a$$. Took it around for another try, made it down and had to dance on the rudders to keep the airplane pointed down the runway.
 
Matthew said:
Last week on a very gusty day, in a 172, and I was rusty.

But it was a 7300' rwy, so my go around was to add power get re-stabilized and try again.
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That runway has saved a lot of bad landings. Mine included...
 
tawood said:
Funny story, but I last went around on my instrument checkride about a month ago:

I completed the checkride, and the DPE said, "Ok, go ahead and land it, you're good." We were on a left downwind at an uncontrolled airport, and we had been on the CTAF for 5 minutes or so annoucing our position and not hearing a soul. As I started a turn to base, a small twin dove right across in front of us! I made evasive action, and then extended my downwind while cleaning out my shorts. The DPE said in regard to the twin pilot, "What an a-hole!" I made my turn to base, then final, and as I finally was descending within a few feet of the runway, four sandhill cranes ran right out onto the runway about 100 feet in front of us. I announced, "Going around!" added power, and flew over the cranes by about 5 feet. Throughout my whole checkride, I had noticed the DPE had been playing or texting on his phone. After the sandhill cranes, I told the guy, "Man! You put on some checkride! I noticed you on your phone, but I didn't realize you were 'cueing the twin engine', or texting 'send out the sandhill cranes'!!!" The DPE laughed and said, "See? I'm known for being tough!".
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Your freaking DPE was TEXTING during your checkride? That's appalling.
 
I did one probably a month ago, just didn't like the sight picture going into a new field. Remember, a go-around is a POSITIVE maneuver. Nothing to be ashamed of.
 
Years, then suddenly 2 in a row within a few days span at BTR. Instructed by tower but was happening either way. Both b/c traffic wouldn’t clear the runway. Tower apologized...not their fault. I,m better for the practice anyway. It’s strange but I was more used to practicing them on missed approaches under the hood.
 
steingar said:
Flight into Oshkosh, wherever I landed out (Wau___ something). Bolluxed the first approach, came around. approach still sucked but I stuffed it in. Kind of a bad habit, that.
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Wautoma.

Otherwise, you'd have been at Waukesha, my home field. ;)

Last go-around that wasn't planned prior to the event or called by ATC that I can remember was about 5.5 years ago - Really squirrelly, gusty winds at night. I think I may have had a couple since then, but they're just not very memorable. Just another day in the cockpit, ya know?

Of course, there have been plenty of low approaches at uncontrolled fields and even one at my towered field when tower let me know that a previous aircraft had spotted a coyote near the runway. :)

Okay, I just remembered a more recent one. Vehicle on the runway at a fuel stop a year or so ago. It was the airport manager, who hadn't seen me coming and apologized profusely after I did get in.
 
kath said:
Just the other day. My practice power-off-180 wasn't going according to plan.
And there were two strangers just standing around by the side of the runway, watching me.
I got self-conscious.
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An interesting point. I don’t really care for audiences, even in non-flying scenarios.

My last go around was two years ago. Hired a cfi for some mountain and short field practice in Colorado. He was having me do what maybe many on here do as a normal approach ... pulling power about 5 seconds after passing the landing spot on downwind. However, that was new to me and our first approach I came in super high. I coulda made the runway but the point was to land on the chosen spot so I went around.
 
So pretty much after I started this thread, I did 2 go arounds!

I was doing my flight review and wanted to do some soft field work on a grass strip (never done it on actual grass due to rental plane policy). First time, my approach was crap, blaming it on the sight picture (short, narrow), decided to go around. Second time, touched down past the halfway point. I thought I could stop in time, but experienced CFI said let’s go around.

Did a few landings and takeoffs. That was humbling. Never could get a consistent approach and landing. Need more practice. That’s where this plane is supposed to shine!

Thinking back, I use runway numbers as my aiming point...there were none on grass! I think I was just aiming for the entire strip. This was good insight into in what can go wrong for me in an emergency soybean/cornfield landing. Aim for the “numbers”. So basic. Aim small, miss small. Just like bow hunting - pick a strand of fur and aim for it.
 
I had to work hard to reorient myself to doing go arounds. When I learned, I'd developed the mindset that you should always do what you need to in order to save an approach if it was landable, so go arounds were just for emergencies. Hard slips were common for me. Now I'll break off a landing as soon as I realize that it's bad.

If I'm practicing, I'll go around if I'm going to be way off of my desired touchdown point. (Why waste the time doing a bad landing when you can go do it right?)

I've very rarely had to do a go around after an XC, but then my goal is to land anywhere in the first 1000' of runway and smoothly so the passengers are happy.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
When was the last time you went around?
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Just a few weeks ago during my instrument "recurrentification" (TM).
To explain: I like to fly the whole flight between take-off and landing under the hood, as if in IMC (duh, right?) so before turning x-wind, foggles go on my face, I navigate "as filed" to the first destination, shoot the approach of choice, go missed (under the hood, duh), shoot a different approach (let's say to emulate GPS failure and be force to use VORs) and go missed again - all while my SP is acting as ATC with vectors etc - and then I head home as my "alternate" to shoot last approach, do a HILPT and when I get down to the MDA on the RNAV, eventually SP says "hey, we just broke out", I take off foggles and land on the same rwy I last saw an hour ago. Weird feeling because I didn't get to enjoy the sights. But accomplished feeling if I kept the needles centered.

Funny tidbit: once I had gear extension failure over FAF under the hood. SP wanted to help pump the gear down himself and was stunned when I told him "you're not here, I am by myself, I gotta be able to do it on my own, just make sure we are upright" and it was great practice. Freaked him out a little but I kept the plane level and pointed toward the rwy with no problem and am glad I got to practice it.

All-in-all, my long reply is meant in the spirit of "practice makes perfect". So don't be afraid to practice maneuvers you haven't done since your PPL training!
 
BigBadLou said:
Funny tidbit: once I had gear extension failure over FAF under the hood. SP wanted to help pump the gear down himself and was stunned when I told him "you're not here, I am by myself, I gotta be able to do it on my own, just make sure we are upright" and it was great practice. Freaked him out a little but I kept the plane level and pointed toward the rwy with no problem and am glad I got to practice it.
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Good on you. I think most folks would have treated your SP like crew and let him help thinking it was good CRM and missing the objective of the practice session. When I started doing my complex check out I thought about that scenario and figured I'd probably opt to go missed and get the gear down while holding. Maybe that's excessively cautious, but it seems like prudent ADM too.

Was your gear failure real?
 
Zeldman said:
Couple summers ago in Kake when a momma bear and two cubs crossed the runway.

Kake is not particularly short even with its displaced thresh hold, but for a Navajo it is unforgiving of long landings.
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Always lots of black bears there on a warm evening. I have gone around in Hoonah for brownies crossing the runway to go fishing before.

Last go around was for a humpback whale surfacing in front of me while landing at a fishing lodge.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
sferguson524 said:
Back in February.. Was flying back into VGT in a cherokee 180.. Winds picked up to 340@17G32 landing on 30. Made the first pass, gusts made xwind correction difficult. Was getting blown off to the left of the runway.. Went around at about 10' off the deck with the seat cushion sucked up into my a$$. Took it around for another try, made it down and had to dance on the rudders to keep the airplane pointed down the runway.
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Back in the mid-90s, I landed on taxiway C after three attempts to land on 25 but unable to keep it on the runway after touchdown.

The tower suggested it after watching me try to get down...which led to some funny comm.

"Tower, am I cleared to land?"
"Well, I can't clear you to land on a taxiway...but I can tell you there are no other aircraft around that will be a conflict if you do."
 
Capt._Chaos said:
Always lots of black bears there on a warm evening. I have gone around in Hoonah for brownies crossing the runway to go fishing before.

Last go around was for a humpback whale surfacing in front of me while landing at a fishing lodge.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
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Always liked Hoonah. We abandoned the ramp one day because a big grizzly came out of the woods and walked across the ramp. He proved bears really do dump on pavement.

A whale would be a good reason to try again. Especially since I only do wheels...:lol::lol:

And welcome to the party..!!!
 
How many CFI's teach go arounds? When I came to FL to fly with my son (new PPL) it amazed me at how much he had not been taught. As you can imagine our "pleasure flights" have turned into a furthering of his education! I was down here and in the plane when his instructor decided to solo him. I wouldn't have if he was my student.

Now working on his instrument I took over the initial training, unofficially of course, since I haven't held valid instructor tickets for many years but at least he got started right and was far ahead of the curve when first flying with his CFII. Have serious doubts about the quality of instructors out there.
 
Hacker said:
Back in the mid-90s, I landed on taxiway C after three attempts to land on 25 but unable to keep it on the runway after touchdown.

The tower suggested it after watching me try to get down...which led to some funny comm.

"Tower, am I cleared to land?"
"Well, I can't clear you to land on a taxiway...but I can tell you there are no other aircraft around that will be a conflict if you do."
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That was not a fun day.. my hands and legs were shaking as i taxied to the pumps.
 
About a month ago going into an unfamilar 50 x 3200 field in a gusty crosswind in a relatively new to me 182 RG.

Come in a little hot, float, drift, bounce, go around, and get a reminder about pitch trim!
 
I hadn’t done one for real in years, then a couple of years ago did one landing at the home field. The Saratoga lurched hard to the right maybe 6 feet off the ground. The runway is only 30’ wide x 2,400, so I didn’t have a lot of room to recover. I pushed on the left rudder, but couldn’t budge it. I executed a go around, made it to pattern altitude, hoping I could figure out what had broken on the plane. My passenger, who was on his second flight with me, pointed at the rudder pedals on his side, and asked; “What do those do?’

He said he had gotten scared on the landing and braced against the pedals. I suspect he had more weight on the right one. After a brief admonishment, I had him put his feet flat on the floor and landed uneventfully.
 
I did one last month when a landing was beyond salvage, and I had even touched the runway. It was that or porpoise down the runway and bend the firewall (not good).

I've been in a couple airliners that did last second go-arounds. People around me were freaking out and I was just sitting there thinking about the delay in landing. Both were due to the aircraft ahead of us not clearing the runway in time.
 
two yesterday practicing TNGs prepping for solo. one on a narrow runway with crosswind, the other because the plane in front of us didn't clear the runway in time.
 
Went around yesterday. An unexpected crosswind started pushing me over into the part of the lake that had all the icebergs. Didn't wanna pull a Titanic.
 
Earlier today. Left traffic pattern full with fixed wing aircraft, two more announcing intended entry on the 45 to downwind, and a helicopter doing right traffic. Extended downwind to set up 2 mile separation with the 172 ahead. It landed long and hot and missed the mid field turnoff on a 3500 ft runway. No problem, plenty of time for it to get to the far end before I have to land. Except about 2/3 the way down the runway the pilot announced that he was turning 180 degrees to back taxi???? Full power, positive climb, raise flaps in increments, and grumble at the 172 still puttering against traffic on the runway as I flew past.

In retrospect, I suspect that the tone of my go-around call was less charitable than it should have been.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Now I can’t remember the last time I did one. That’s not good. I think I’m gonna throw one in once in a while.
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According my logbook, the last one was on March 24. I was #2 behind a Cirrus at an airport where everyone exits to the ramp. The pilot of the Cirrus, instead, decided to roll the whole length. I wasn't particularly low and it was trivial to shovel it for go-around without any drama. Actually, I toyed with an idea to land and nonchalantly exit to ramp while the Cirrus was taxiing back and forth. But I didn't want to take the risk however small.
 
I had 2 in one day a couple of months back. Winds were gusty and shifting all over the place and the hangars right next to the runway at the home strip can create some funky gusts when the wind is right. There's plenty of runway so I probably could have added power, stabilized things, and landed with plenty of room to spare but I've never been shy about shoving the throttle in and trying again.
 
Good to practice GA once in awhile so you don't forget the steps. Like retracting the flaps from 40 to 25 in a Piper. Otherwise, it's like climbing with a 5,000 lb elephant on the roof. I learned that the hard way.
 
tawood said:
Funny that it was a serious question, yet you gave no answer.
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I can't imagine that anyone without a bilateral lobotomy needs an answer to that question. But I've been surprised before and I'll be surprised again.
 
steingar said:
Flight into Oshkosh, wherever I landed out (Wau___ something). Bolluxed the first approach, came around. approach still sucked but I stuffed it in. Kind of a bad habit, that.
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orange said:
Good to practice GA once in awhile so you don't forget the steps. Like retracting the flaps from 40 to 25 in a Piper. Otherwise, it's like climbing with a 5,000 lb elephant on the roof. I learned that the hard way.
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Was talking with an instructor this weekend during a 172 checkout and he observed that as you get to be at least a pretty good pilot, you almost never do go arounds anymore, therefore it becomes more important to intentionally practice them.

All of my recent go arounds have happened because it was apparent very early that I was way too high and too close on final. That's almost not practice.
 
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