Every pilot should keep this skill sharp
Student pilots are split into two camps on the subject. Some look at go-arounds as one more thing to be learned that won't be needed again after the practical test, while others recognize the value of this maneuver and understand that it could be required on any flight.
It's been more than a year since I flew a "real" go-around (instructors, you do insist on at least one during each flight review, don't you?), but I had an experience recently that should move anyone currently in the one-more-thing-to-learn camp solidly into the valuable-maneuver mindset.
On May 28, I was flying into Chicago on a United Airlines Boeing 737. My favorite thing about flying United is Channel 9 of the in-flight entertainment system, which plays the flight's air traffic control communications. We were on approach to Runway 14 Right at O'Hare International Airport, perhaps 800 to 1,000 feet above ground level, when I heard the controller's businesslike voice in my headset: "United 451, go around, contamination on the runway, fly runway heading for now."
The power came up smoothly and the Boeing accelerated as the landing gear retracted. Only then did one of the pilots read back the clearance. "Runway heading, United 451." Aviate, navigate, then communicate--AOPA Flight Training columnist Ralph Butcher, a retired United captain, would have been proud.
The arrival two or three airplanes ahead of us had struck a bird, leaving debris on the runway. Even though the airport wasn't terribly busy that early on a Sunday morning, a number of aircraft were affected. The tower handed us off to Chicago Approach, which, after a short climb and a couple of turns, had us established on the approach to Runway 22 Left. There, our flight was asked to reduce its speed, so that another airplane could take off before we landed. Then, in a continuing example of aviation teamwork, after touchdown the crew rapidly decelerated the 737 and quickly cleared the runway, knowing that the tower wanted to get out another departure or two before the next landing. In spite of all this aeronautical drama, the flight touched down only five or six minutes after the controller issued the instruction to go around.
Although I've had an opportunity to fly a Boeing 737 simulator, I never flew a go-around in it. Given the amount of drag produced by full flaps and extended landing gear, however--and the large amount of thrust available once those two big turbofan engines spool up--I suspect that a go-around in the Boeing would be more of a handful than in the single-engine, piston-powered airplanes that most of us fly.
The only other go-around I recall as a passenger was on a Southwest flight into Las Vegas. It was well after dark, and it looked like we were within 200 or 300 feet of the ground when the power came up and the controller turned us onto a downwind leg right over the bright neon lights of the Strip. I was glad to have a window seat on that flight, but I did find myself wishing for an entertainment system with Channel 9. (In that case, the aircraft departing immediately before our arrival had aborted its takeoff.)
Of course, the bigger challenge with go-arounds often is knowing when to perform one. Air traffic control--or your flight instructor--may tell you to go around, but most of the time you have to figure it out for yourself.
On final to Runway 5 at Frederick (Maryland) Municipal Airport one afternoon many years ago, my instructor Bart Pearl said, "There's a cow on the runway!"
Leaning forward as if it would help me see better, I looked up and down the runway while continuing my approach. A cow just didn't seem possible--a deer, maybe, but not a cow. "Where? I don't see any cow," I replied.
"For crying out loud, would you just go around?" said my exasperated instructor, who had been preparing me for my private pilot checkride.
If the last time you executed a go-around was on your checkride, practice a couple on your next flight. You never know when you may need to do one for real--and it doesn't matter what you're flying.
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