Narrative:

The flight was eventful; to say the least. First; we had a long day and were very tired; fatigue definitely played its part in this scenario. We started the day with three unrelated mechanical problems as we attempted to originate the flight. By the time all the issues were resolved; we were over an hour late off the gate. We had a plane change for our last leg to ord. During the climbout; I felt a strange vibration in the airframe. The vibration appeared for about 5 to 10 seconds and then disappeared. (It reoccurred three times.) the first officer and I discussed it for a moment when it happened again; this time more severe. Our altitude was between 13;000 and 19;000 ft during these events with airspeed between 310-330. The event lasted for three cycles and then we entered turbulence for the rest of the flight and did not notice it again. As we approached the ord area on the watsn one arrival ord was landing to the east. As we descended; the controller cleared us direct to the esspo intersection to cross at 12;000? We programmed for the crossing restriction and started down. The autopilot captured the path and we descended on profile at an assigned speed of 290. The clearance after esspo was unclear and we had a discontinuity after esspo. I was just about to ask the first officer to clarify the clearance after esspo when the controller; at about 7 NM prior to esspo told us to reduce speed to 280. This speed reduction was going to cause us to be high for our crossing; so I deployed the speed brakes and closely monitored the descent profile to ensure that we made our crossing restriction. We reached our crossing altitude right at esspo and were told to change to approach control. When we checked on with the new controller he asked our speed and we told him 280; he assigned us 250. Then he asked if we were on an assigned heading and we said 285. He told us to turn to 350. The controller turned us toward the outer marker and cleared us to descend to 4;000 and asked if we had the airport. We did and were cleared for a visual approach. As we were a little high; I called for the gear (I already had slowed to 210 and had the flaps at 1). We descended rapidly and I turned for the outer marker. I slowed further and called for flaps 2. Everything looked fine except that we were a little high on the glideslope and a little fast. I pushed for managed speed and noticed that the index went to 250 and the power started up. I spun the airspeed down to 150 very quickly and told the first officer to activate and confirm the approach. I; now; do not believe that he heard me. I had planned for a flaps 3 landing and called for flaps 3 and again attempted to go to managed speed. Again the bug went to 250 and the power increased. Again; I pulled it out of managed and dialed it down. However; we were still fast and still high; so I elected to miss the approach at 1;000FT as we were not stable. We did and were vectored back around for another approach. This time; however; I noticed that we had a 35 KT tailwind on final. This explained why when I turned for the airport the airplane did not come down as I expected. Even though this approach was started much further out; the tailwind made it hard for the airplane to remain on glide path with only flaps 3. I called for full flaps and that slowed the aircraft down so that we were on speed and glide path at 1;000 ft when we encountered the loss of the tailwind. There was no warning; but after we landed other aircraft were having trouble getting down and going around. Once at the gate we filled out the vibration report and headed for the hotel. A long day.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Taken by surprise by an unexpected tailwind on final approach; the fatigued air carrier flight crew maked a go-around at 1000 FT due to not having attained required stabilized approach criteria.

Narrative: The flight was eventful; to say the least. First; we had a long day and were very tired; fatigue definitely played its part in this scenario. We started the day with three unrelated mechanical problems as we attempted to originate the flight. By the time all the issues were resolved; we were over an hour late off the gate. We had a plane change for our last leg to ORD. During the climbout; I felt a strange vibration in the airframe. The vibration appeared for about 5 to 10 seconds and then disappeared. (It reoccurred three times.) The First Officer and I discussed it for a moment when it happened again; this time more severe. Our altitude was between 13;000 and 19;000 FT during these events with airspeed between 310-330. The event lasted for three cycles and then we entered turbulence for the rest of the flight and did not notice it again. As we approached the ORD area on the WATSN ONE arrival ORD was landing to the east. As we descended; the controller cleared us direct to the ESSPO intersection to cross at 12;000? We programmed for the crossing restriction and started down. The autopilot captured the path and we descended on profile at an assigned speed of 290. The clearance after ESSPO was unclear and we had a discontinuity after ESSPO. I was just about to ask the First Officer to clarify the clearance after ESSPO when the Controller; at about 7 NM prior to ESSPO told us to reduce speed to 280. This speed reduction was going to cause us to be high for our crossing; so I deployed the speed brakes and closely monitored the descent profile to ensure that we made our crossing restriction. We reached our crossing altitude right at ESSPO and were told to change to Approach Control. When we checked on with the new controller he asked our speed and we told him 280; he assigned us 250. Then he asked if we were on an assigned heading and we said 285. He told us to turn to 350. The controller turned us toward the outer marker and cleared us to descend to 4;000 and asked if we had the airport. We did and were cleared for a visual approach. As we were a little high; I called for the gear (I already had slowed to 210 and had the flaps at 1). We descended rapidly and I turned for the outer marker. I slowed further and called for Flaps 2. Everything looked fine except that we were a little high on the glideslope and a little fast. I pushed for managed speed and noticed that the index went to 250 and the power started up. I spun the airspeed down to 150 very quickly and told the First Officer to activate and confirm the approach. I; now; do not believe that he heard me. I had planned for a Flaps 3 landing and called for Flaps 3 and again attempted to go to managed speed. Again the bug went to 250 and the power increased. Again; I pulled it out of managed and dialed it down. However; we were still fast and still high; so I elected to miss the approach at 1;000FT as we were not stable. We did and were vectored back around for another approach. This time; however; I noticed that we had a 35 KT tailwind on final. This explained why when I turned for the airport the airplane did not come down as I expected. Even though this approach was started much further out; the tailwind made it hard for the airplane to remain on glide path with only Flaps 3. I called for full flaps and that slowed the aircraft down so that we were on speed and glide path at 1;000 FT when we encountered the loss of the tailwind. There was no warning; but after we landed other aircraft were having trouble getting down and going around. Once at the gate we filled out the vibration report and headed for the hotel. A long day.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.