Working as One

Imagine the following scenario: A cockpit crew anticipates an uneventful instrument approach to a landing. With the runway clearly in sight, a controller in the airport air traffic control tower revokes the landing clearance and instructs the crew to execute a go around (GA). Both pilots are surprised, and then they receive further instructions to deviate from the published missed approach. The revised path requires an immediate turn and a lower level-off altitude than published. As specified in the operator’s standard operating procedure, (SOP) the pilot flying (PF) calls for “go-around flaps” and waits to hear a positive climb confirmation from the pilot monitoring (PM). The PM reads back the revised missed approach instructions, changes the flight control unit (FCU) heading and altitude and calls “positive climb.” Because of the time lag during which the FCU updates the flight director and autopilot system, the PF elects to hand-fly the heading change and level off. Howeve…