Go-Around near the ground (A320 Family)
Erick Silva
CEO at Yufeng Consulting | A320 Captain | Pilot recruiter | Cryptoassets/currencies Investor since 2013
A Go-Around is a maneuver considered a normal procedure, it’s important for the pilots to feel comfortable with this procedure and to constantly train the different types of Go-Arounds in the simulator (different altitudes).
The Go-Around maneuver is clearly defined in our FCOM and you can find a lot of good recommendations about it in our FCTM, however Airbus manuals do not clearly define the steps to follow during a “Go-Around near the ground” or any standard callouts for this specific type of Go-Around. I supposed Airbus may be considering this maneuver as obvious, but it isn’t that obvious for many of us, is it?
Until February 2018, this is the only information you’ll find about this procedure in the Airbus manuals:
Due to the lack of clear steps for a Go-Around near the ground some airlines have decided to add this procedure to their company operating manual or personalized SOP.
I had collected some examples from different airlines, however this is the one I liked the most:
Notes: “GO AROUND PITCH” may be replaced by “GO AROUND”. The other callouts mentioned above were taken from the FCOM Standard Callouts for the Landing & Go-Around phases.
What do you think about the above procedure?
Do you think Airbus should add a clearer procedure for this kind of Go-Around in their FCOM?
Please share your thoughts!, and don’t forget to share and ???? if you liked the article or ???? if you didn’t.
Happy Landings!
BS Mech Eng? FAA ICAO ATP A32S?TRI-R A320
1 年Very interesting post, I was looking for more information about the definition of a Go Around near the gorund since there's no parameter to determine when or where one can consider the Go Around will be near the ground or not.
A320 Captain | TRI & LTC A320 Fam | ICAO ATP Rated
7 年Hello Eric, thank you for the post. Nowadays we already have many normal and abnormal memory procedures, and as you say, the Go-Around is a normal procedures that we always must keep in mind during the approach. Airbus give us some considerations if it occurs near of the ground for take account, but, Is it really necessary to create a new procedure with their respective callouts? I think not, if it were like that, airbus would have to publish a procedure for each of the events that could eventually happens, and aviation is extremely dynamic. WE MUST NOT FORGET THAT WE ARE "PILOTS", AND WE CAN THINK AND FLY THE AIRCRAFT. Kind regards.
Pilot/Bachelor/Engineer
7 年Just great. Thanks for helping people to take our brain out from dust
Freelance A320 SFI.
7 年Hi Eric In your procedure "Rotation.... Perform to achieve positive climb. PM...Monitor attitude 10 degrees" is one thing I would rather have it in PF column "Attitude 10 degrees establish". All procedures have some logic, something to achieve, some thing to avoid. Since the only part of an aircraft designed to take impact load is the gear and not the tail, in the execution of the this manoeuvre avoidance of tail strike should be primary goal and establishing climb is secondary. Normal attitude during approach is 3 to 4 degrees and tail strike with gear down is 13.5 degrees. After establishing initial rotation of appx. 10 degrees no attempt should be made to avoid ground contact. As the FCTM says delayed flap retraction may be considered. GO Around flap could be modified to GO AROUND....Maintain flaps.
A320 TRE Captain
7 年Great article and great topic to be clear, specially in training... Some airlines have different callouts, like "TOGA 10" (10deg of pitch until safe climb) or TOGA I HAVE CONTROL, trying to avoid the trainee raising 1 step of Flaps too early.