Fearless approach
Last weekend we all seen the video on you tube, or the news outlet of that famous approach of a Lufthansa Airbus 320 trying to land at a local airport in Germany when a certain unexpected gust of wind gave the pilot second thoughts about landing so they went around. The media aspect of it was sensational! They claimed the aircraft was close to certain doom. The fact of the matter is that the pilot did an excellent job in making a go-around.
Approaching into gale force winds is not that uncommon. Most of the time when the wind is that strong its flow in the same direction of the runway making the landing easier. Every region of the country once in a while gets winds gusting like that as coriolis force which is a deflection force resulting from the earth's rotation causes air to pile up & increase pressure over whats called the isobars. When pilots look at the weather forecast & see the isobars are very close together then normal thats an indication to the flight crew that at their destination you should expect strong surface winds, turbulence & windshear. Windshear is an unexpected change of wind velocity or direction. Windsshear is associated with bad weather. That Lufthansa flight more that likely encountered windshear.
Windshear is not as hazardous when you expect it , & brief your crew members the plan of action when it happens. It's more dangerous when you don't expect it, & not planned for it. That where we had previous plane crashes. More than likely that airbus crew planned their approach well. The captain probably gave his/her first officer a briefing to expect windshear & a plan of action when it happens. They probably also gave themselves a little extra margin in their airpeed for their approach. The result was a successful go-around & safe flight. I am not going to say that was rountine. However, most airline pilots have had approachs like that & made the good judgement of a go-around. Theres nothing wrong with going around & trying it again. Its when you continue a bad approach that increase your risk of a accident.
Approaching into gale force winds is not that uncommon. Most of the time when the wind is that strong its flow in the same direction of the runway making the landing easier. Every region of the country once in a while gets winds gusting like that as coriolis force which is a deflection force resulting from the earth's rotation causes air to pile up & increase pressure over whats called the isobars. When pilots look at the weather forecast & see the isobars are very close together then normal thats an indication to the flight crew that at their destination you should expect strong surface winds, turbulence & windshear. Windshear is an unexpected change of wind velocity or direction. Windsshear is associated with bad weather. That Lufthansa flight more that likely encountered windshear.
Windshear is not as hazardous when you expect it , & brief your crew members the plan of action when it happens. It's more dangerous when you don't expect it, & not planned for it. That where we had previous plane crashes. More than likely that airbus crew planned their approach well. The captain probably gave his/her first officer a briefing to expect windshear & a plan of action when it happens. They probably also gave themselves a little extra margin in their airpeed for their approach. The result was a successful go-around & safe flight. I am not going to say that was rountine. However, most airline pilots have had approachs like that & made the good judgement of a go-around. Theres nothing wrong with going around & trying it again. Its when you continue a bad approach that increase your risk of a accident.
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