Landing: one good one is all you need

[aroraborealis]

I'm in Wyoming, now, and it's snowing! It's been snowing since I got here, so it's all wintery and stuff. It did make the approach and landing a little tricky, so I got to have my first ever experience of a commercial flight aborting a landing attempt about 5 feet off the runway. We ended up doing a BIG circle before coming back -- adding another 15 minutes or so to the flight. Not sure why we ended up going up so high to circle; maybe there was other traffic in the area, or a big pattern due to the weather. Fortunately, the second landing took. Dad tells me the Delta flight before us chickened out and went on to Idaho Falls. That would have been a big bummer on the end of the day.

Screaming children on both the other legs of the trip. On the one hand, I feel bad for the parents of those kids (not to mention the kids themselves), but on the other hand, I want to toss the kids out the window. Or at least have a screaming section with soundproofed walls at the back of the plane.

Home is home. Some new stuff, mostly not. The dog has only one eye, which I knew, but I hadn't seen it yet. It's charming.

Bed soon. I didn't sleep as much as I'd've liked last night, what with the packing, and the travel anticipation, and the early rising, and the noisy roommates.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Glad you made it home safe and sound! I forgot to say bye, have a good trip before ya left... Say hi to your family for me.
*hugs*
-Ghislaine

This might be why the circling was so lengthy

[agaran.livejournal.com]

Aborting a landing like your pilot did today, particularly in heavy weather, or around rough terrain (I've heard there might be mountains near Jackson Hole), involves something called a "missed approach" procedure. The pilots would have known the procedure during their approach, and when they elected not to take the landing, they would then have to climb to a certain altitude and fly a published, predictable course to a particular navigational aid nearby, and then possibly even hold, until they were cleared for the next approach. (Instrument rules flying like your pilots did today is a lot different than it was when you flew with me under visual rules in the Cessna!) So that likely explains the delay in getting established back on the approach.

Re: This might be why the circling was so lengthy

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the added time required for the pilot to go back & clean out his shorts - missed approaches are often a very stressful experience.s