1993-02 · NASA ASRS report 233117
MLG FLC POOR PREPARATION FOR APCH. UNSTABILIZED APCH; GAR.
APCHING THE ARPT; THE CAPT GIVES ME THE WX THAT HE RECEIVED FROM THE CURRENT ATIS. I LOOKED AT IT REAL QUICK BUT DID NOT NOTICE THE LOW SCATTERED LAYER. WE WERE ON TOP OF VARIOUS SCATTERED LAYERS AND HIGH. THE APCH CTLRS ALWAYS KEEP YOU HIGH AT THIS ARPT. 9000 FT ON DOWNWIND LEG. THEN WE START TO GET VECTORS FOR THE BASE AND FINAL LEGS AND THEN WAS TOLD TO INTERCEPT THE LOC BACK COURSE. IT STARTED TO GET A LITTLE BUSY; WAS TRYING TO GET DOWN FAST; STAY ON THE LOC BACK COURSE AND SINCE I DID NOT EXPECT THE LOW SCATTERED LAYER; I DID NOT EVEN EXPECT TO DO THE FULL APCH. I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE A VISUAL SO I DID NOT EVEN BRIEF THE APCH. THE CAPT WAS NOT SAYING ANYTHING; JUST WATCHING. AT ONE POINT; I FOUND MYSELF DSNDING FAST AND THE LOC NEEDLE FULLY DEFLECTED TO THE L. IMMEDIATELY; I CORRECTED AND WAS QUICKLY ON COURSE AGAIN WHILE STILL DSNDING. I WASN'T AWARE WHAT THE MDA WAS. FORTUNATELY; WE BROKE OUT ABOUT 500 FT OVER THE NUMBERS SLIGHTLY OFF TO THE R AND EXECUTED A MISSED APCH. SOMETIMES I GET COMPLACENT; WHICH IT IS VERY EASY TO GET INTO. I LEARNED A LOT FROM THIS EXPERIENCE. #1: PAY ATTN AND BE AWARE OF EVERY LAYER OF CLOUD AT THE ARPT. #2: NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING; ALWAYS BRIEF THE APCH AND MAKE A MENTAL NOTE OF THE MDA OR DECISION HT. #3 IF THE CTLRS KEEP YOU HIGH ASK TO EXTEND THE DOWNWIND LEG AND GET IT CONFIGURED REAL FAST AND INCREASE YOUR SCAN. #4: BE AWARE OF YOUR DISTANCE FROM THE RWY OR WHERE YOU ARE ON THE APCH AND AT WHAT ALT YOU SHOULD BE AT THAT POINT. I THINK THIS OCCURRENCE WAS CAUSED BY ME NOT BEING PREPARED; THE APCH CTLRS KEEPING US SO HIGH; AND BY ME FIXATING ON 1 THING; THAT IS; GETTING DOWN; AND FORGETTING THE APCH PROC.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.