Page 30 - Twin and Turbine June 2017

Jet Journal
Litanies
The story of a go-around at one of the nation's most carefully controlled airspaces: DCA
by Kevin R. Dingman
Litany: noun, plural litanies. A prolonged
ts ten-past midnight at the end of a 14-hour day. You’re flying an ILS; the weather is 300/1. Winds at 3,000 feet on final show a 40-knot tailwind. It’s reported at the surface as a direct cross at 20 knots. The runway is wet, but braking action is good. Runway length required for your
jet tonight is 4,750 feet; runway length available, if on glide slope, is 5,862.
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Iaccount; a list, catalog, enumeration.
On five-mile final, the approach is not working. You’re too fast. The spacing on the plane in front of you is insufficient, you’re not fully configured, you dropped your pen and a shoe came untied. You’re dreading the go-around because the missed follows a critical ground path. You feel the hairs standing up. If you are a musician, this is an unrehearsed time signature and key change at Carnegie Hall. If a CFO, Mr. Potter just stole the Building & Loan’s bank deposit. What now? You go around.
Announce the go-around to your partner, press the TOGA (takeoff/go around) button. Verify the motors spool up to the correct power setting. Follow the flight director. Flaps to approach. Positive rate, gear up. Set missed approach altitude. Verify roll mode, LNAV or HDG. Set speed, VNAV or LVL CHG in the FMS. Call tower. Tell them you’re goin’ around. Answer their question about why.
Switch to departure control. Answer their question about what you want to do next. For now, you tell them vectors for another approach. The flight attendant chime is going off or your pax are calling you, they need to talk. Could be something bad and not simply them wanting to know what happened.
As PIC, you must prioritize the multiple sources of changing, and possibly critical, incoming information. Retract the flaps. Get stabilized on the obstacle avoidance procedure, missed approach, special use airspace avoidance track, or the heading and altitude assigned by departure control. Make sure their instructions don’t send you into the rocks. Level off at the missed approach altitude. Run the after-takeoff checklist. If not already done, engage the autopilot or give the airplane to the FO. Check your fuel and decide: try again or divert. Tell the FO your thoughts, get his/her input and then tell ATC your decision. Call the FA’s. Tell them what happened and your decision. Make a PA to the folks and explain why we didn’t land. Reassure them that all is well as you tell them your decision. Execute your decision, and if it’s to divert to an alternate, send a message to the company; tell them your decision. Be grateful this was not a single-engine missed approach. Take another breath. Bow to the applauding Carnegie Hall audience, snatch your deposit back from Potter.
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