Sorry for infiltrating the UA forum - I'm just a humble BA user from Scotland, but I am interested in reading about go-arounds etc and am particularly envious of you UA fliers getting to listen to Channel 9!

I had my first and, so far, only go-around at Edinburgh, Scotland on 5th January this year. It was a very windy day, with basically a strong headwind, slightly cross. The approach to EDI is over the River Forth, a wide estuary and quite exposed to winds.

We were all over the place on finals and many pax were gripping their arm-rests. I was enjoying it There was a fair bit of roll going on but being auto-corrected. However, I reckon no more than 50ft above the runway, the pilot threw the throttle forward and up we went again, like a rocket. Thought I was going to be sick myself, as the winds really got us rocking on the ascent.

Pilot explained, as I thought, that a strong gust had caught us just above the runway and he was worried about a wing strike, so took us around. Explained that the thrust and acceleration on an A319 is fantastic compared to when he used to have to do go-arounds on 767s! Didn't comfort the pax very much!

Normally the go-around would only add about 10 minutes but on that particular day there was a national 3-minute silence being held for the tsunami victims and ATC were observing it, hence NOTAMS were issued saying no landings between 12 noon and 12.10. Our go-around was at 11.51am hence we had to do figure-eights over the city and the River Forth for 20 minutes.

Second attempt was just as bumpy but no last-minute gust!