I didn’t watch it as I have my medical coming up next month and I want my blood pressure to be OK! I spoke to a friend yesterday who controls at Swanwick. She told me that there are huge concerns down there as they had heard that the air traffic portrayal was supposed to be very poor. As I didn’t see it I can’t really comment.

On the subject of go arounds, this is an area that always amuses me. The press would have you believe that every time an aircraft performs a go around (aka missed approach) that a major accident has just been averted! The press and the public need to understand that a go around is as worrying to me as my meal not turning up on time! Obviously it’s a bit more interesting in 75 meters visibility and I have to go around after main wheel contact because I didn’t see any lights (Cat 3b with a decision height, this being one stage reduced from the no decision height scenario, Cat 3b no DH, due to airfield limitations).

Somebody correctly pointed out earlier that in the UK we generally do not go for cross runway operations like the Americans and for this I am grateful. In the UK multi runway ops are completed from parallel runways. All operations into commercial UK airfields have Missed Approach Procedures established so that in the event of a go around the controller doesn’t have to do any frantic controlling. For example, at MAN landing on 24R with departures on 24L the MAP is climb to 750′ (if I remember rightly) then right turn heading 360. This gives instant separation from departing traffic.

Finally the culture is changing in airline thinking. In years gone by there was a dreadful bravado (which is still firmly believed to exist in some far eastern cultures) that to perform a missed approach is a sign of failure leading to high landing accident statistics in these areas. We are now (in my company) actively encouraged to execute a go around if for any reason we are not at all happy.

Regards
wys