@Pennox “Pilot types - do you take more of a risk when it's third and final attempt or is it all determined by the automation?”
We never take a risk. It’s all basically down to numbers. Inside the crosswind limits? Make an attempt to land. Outside? Don’t attempt. Made an attempt but the aircraft shouts ‘windshear’ at you? Compulsory go around (99.9% true, there are the odd exceptions to this but they won’t be applying today, so if they get a windshear warning they will go around.) As I said earlier, the automation doesn’t get much of a look in at this. It is likely that the pilots will have the autopilot in for the initial approach as only a nutter would have flown a long flight and then think ‘wa-hey, I think I’ll fly it manually today!’ Although we do have people who would do that, and that’s why we have at least 2 pilots on each flight, so the second can say to the first ‘do you really think that’s a great idea?’ After the initial automatic approach, they will take the autopilot out. I’d be doing that at about 6-700ft today. We have a compulsory check at 1000ft to ensure everything is going well so far and within limits to carry on the approach. If something isn’t stable, such as speed or approach path, we go around. Speed will be difficult to control today, which may account for some of the earlier go arounds that are not windshear go arounds. Once we get closer to the ground, at a certain point we remove thrust and ‘flare’ ie bring the nose up so we land on the main gear first, this is a vulnerable moment. It’s possible at this point to ‘float’ ie not get the wheels onto the ground, or to ‘drift’ ie end up not on the centre line. If that happens, we go around. Once the wheels are down, if we bounce and haven’t got the reverse thrust deployed, we go around. Finally, if it all just looks like shit and you don’t like the look of the way things are going, we can go around.
The way we are taught, we will never be criticised for carrying out a go around (assuming you do it properly!) It’s the safer thing to do. The pilots are entirely in control of the decision to go around, no one on the ground except an air traffic controller can tell them to go around. In real life, in well over 20 years now, I have done 4 go arounds for real, but hundreds and hundreds in the simulator. We practice them every time we go in the sim, in all conditions - wind, fog, windshear, instrument or automatics failure, another plane in the way, etc. Even making the decision to go around is a big one, so we practice making the decision too. Often the trainer will tell us to go around at an unexpected moment, or program the sim to present us with conditions where we have to make the decision for ourselves.
For anyone who is worried about someone they know being on a plane in this, don’t worry. Planes are fine up in the air - it looks wobbly on BJ TV but we fly in higher winds than this all the time - the jet streams across the Atlantic are frequently faster than 100kts, it’s just we aren’t on tv showing us in relation to the ground! It is tricky getting it down those last couple of hundred feet in this sort of weather, but our training is just for this.
For the poster who asked if we get scared or like a bit of a challenge, I must admit if I see awkward weather such as fog, wind or snow, I do think ‘come on!’ 🤣 I love a boring day at work where I get to get off and go to the beach and nothing exciting happened, but I love a bit of a challenge too.