CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER 2 BEN MLYNEK
Detachment 28, Operational Support Airlift Agency
West Virginia Army National Guard
Williamstown, West Virginia
It was a beautiful spring day on the East Coast, and our detachment was responsible for dropping off leadership for a site visit at the Aviation Classification Repair Activity Depot (AVCRAD) facility in Groton, Connecticut. Our unit utilizes the C-12Y aircraft for our day-to-day operations out of the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Our mission is primarily VIP, but we get assigned various missions throughout our state and for other agencies within the Department of Defense.
Like any other mission we are assigned, my co-pilot and I planned and filed for the route, got a weather brief, checked the database and airport notices to airmen (NOTAMs), completed our risk assessment for the flight, briefed at the table and began preflight of our aircraft. The risk assessment for the day was a LOW, and the weather was mostly visual flight rules (VFR) with some marginal low-level ceilings on the coast expected to lift by mid-day. I was acting as pilot in command (PC) for the duration of the flight, with my co-pilot sitting in the left seat. She was the most experienced on the aircraft, being an instructor pilot, a fixed-wing pilot on the civilian side and having more than 2,000 hours in the C-12. At the time of the flight, I had just under 350 hours in the C-12 and over 1,000 hours total.
The duration of the flight was mostly uneventful aside from some re-routing north of New York City. As we started our descent into Connecticut, we could see on the traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) that there were some planes doing pattern work at the airport. The ceilings were starting to lift but were still low enough to ask for the RNAV approach versus doing a visual approach once we broke out of the cloud layer. The approach controller gave us our final clearance prior to switching us to the tower.
As soon as I switched to the tower, we could hear a small Cessna in the downwind doing traffic pattern work. Establishing positive communication with the tower, he asked us to call at the final approach fix and began talking to the Cessna. Passing the final approach fix, I made the call and we started our descent.
The tower told us to continue our approach and that he was trying to get the Cessna in ahead of us. At this point, we were on about a 3-mile final for the runway. Without knowing the approach speed of the Cessna, I knew they were slower, and we were between 130 and 120 knots. The controller gave the Cessna clearance to land ahead of us, and the pilot ripped in front of us on our path of flight. My co-pilot and I looked at each other. We had a discussion well in advance of the situation that we needed to be prepared to do a go-around. As we realized our closing speed was just too fast and that we were getting at an uncomfortable separation, she called the go-around before I could get the words out, and we executed the procedure. Without hesitation, she advanced the power and we pulled up, away and back around for another try in the pattern.
We shot another visual approach and landed the plane without incident, but as we talked about what happened after shutting down, I had a lot of questions as to why things unfolded the way they did. That was my first true go-around situation, and I just couldn’t understand why the tower would clear the Cessna to land in front of us.
Lessons learned
I learned a lot from this event, and there are some things I would do differently if ever in the same situation. Knowing smaller airports always have traffic, I may have opted for the visual approach, knowing I could enter the pattern with the other aircraft and just sequence in. Not hesitating to make the call to do the go-around is something else I would have changed about my decision-making process. My lack of experience landing fixed-wing aircraft might have caused me to try to make it work in a situation where it was not necessary. When in doubt, do a go-around. It would be easier for me to talk about the go-around I performed rather than crashing into the back of a Cessna, trying to make it work.
As aviators, we must be prepared for any contingency. We briefed everything at the table, talked about things in the air and performed all the required checklists on our way in. Even though we felt prepared and took all the necessary steps to avoid a mishap, sometimes things are out of our hands. We must be prepared to act accordingly and keep our passengers and fellow crewmembers safe.