So I'm not a totally inexperienced traveler, but not on a plane every few days either. I've flown maybe 200 legs ever on commercial carriers.
Yesterday I was on this flight from KDAY to KIAD: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/U...24ZZ/KDAY/KIAD
The flight was generally uneventful, and as we neared Dulles we made some pretty tight turns which I did not find surprising in the vicinity of a busy airport. We got lined up on final, going what I perceived to be pretty fast and pretty low (< 3000 feet in my totally uninformed opinion), when all of a sudden the pilot does an "s"-turn! As he got lined up again at the end, I caught sight of the PAPI showing 4 white lights and a few seconds later we went around.
I know something like that would be unremarkable if done by someone in a 172, but I've never experienced it before on a commercial flight. Is doing an s-turn on final considered acceptable practice in commercial passenger flying?
Yesterday I was on this flight from KDAY to KIAD: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/U...24ZZ/KDAY/KIAD
The flight was generally uneventful, and as we neared Dulles we made some pretty tight turns which I did not find surprising in the vicinity of a busy airport. We got lined up on final, going what I perceived to be pretty fast and pretty low (< 3000 feet in my totally uninformed opinion), when all of a sudden the pilot does an "s"-turn! As he got lined up again at the end, I caught sight of the PAPI showing 4 white lights and a few seconds later we went around.
I know something like that would be unremarkable if done by someone in a 172, but I've never experienced it before on a commercial flight. Is doing an s-turn on final considered acceptable practice in commercial passenger flying?
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