Originally Posted by
Flaflyer
No regular runway is 60 seconds long at jet flying speeds....As long as the pilot knows he has sufficient speed and will have the altitude to clear the trees ahead, it is safer to stay low for a few seconds and check the required go around settings. It shows he did things right.
Sorry, the math doesn't work out. 60 seconds @ 150 MPH will more than clear the perimeter of most airports. The need to get up & away quickly in a go around is underscored by the example you cited in your previous paragraph:
Originally Posted by
Flaflyer
... The pilot in India landed half way down the runway without enough room to stop...
The longer runway at Mangalore is 2.45 km (8,038 ft) long. If the pilot touched down at the very start of the runway, at 150 MPH he would clear the runway in 37 seconds. If the pilot touched down halfway down the runway (your example), he would clear the end of the runway in 18 seconds.
If the pilot was halfway down the longer runway, 60 seconds to get going again would (with a lot of luck) have the plane skimming over sacred cows, houses, trees.
If he was trying to land on the shorter runway (1600 m. or 5249 ft.) at Mangalore, the numbers are reduced by about 1/3, i.e. if you touch down halfway down the shorter runway, you only have about 12 seconds until you're greeting the cows at the end of the runway.
The go arounds I've been in have had the plane climbing immediately -- there was no screwing around at ground level.