Narrative:

The first officer was pilot flying and briefed a visual approach in VMC. After being vectored and descended to 2500 and cleared for the ILS approach we got behind the airplane and ended up too high to make a safe approach and landing. We elected to go around. The main reason we wanted to report this was because it bothered us so much that it happened and wanted to share what we think where contributing factors. The ATIS was reporting visual conditions; but the side of the airport we came in from was such that I think the poor visibility (around 5 miles) caused us to feel like we were further away than we were and had more time to get down. We had the ILS tuned in and of course had DME but failed to watch them close enough. I think we where just expecting to be able to do it completely visual. We both got up that morning around xa:30 for our xc:00 show. I had 2 long days of ground school the 2 days before; one day off before that and five long days of flying before that. The night before this I had been up many times helping to care for my sick children. The point is I was definitely tired. I should have called in fatigued. I didn't because I would lose pay and the culture at my airline is that it is frowned upon to do so. Unfortunately flying tired is something I'm very used to doing and I've grown accustomed to it. This is by far the worst result of it for me. Maybe the fact that I knew I had a long overnight caused me to feel like I just had to get through the day and then could rest. It should be noted that both pilots have been on reserve for 2 years at the company. I feel ashamed that we let this happen; we should be more professional no matter what our personal circumstances or busy flying schedules.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CL65 flight crew cited fatigue as the primary reason they experienced an unstabilized approach condition and needed to go-around and start over.

Narrative: The First Officer was pilot flying and briefed a visual approach in VMC. After being vectored and descended to 2500 and cleared for the ILS approach we got behind the airplane and ended up too high to make a safe approach and landing. We elected to go around. The main reason we wanted to report this was because it bothered us so much that it happened and wanted to share what we think where contributing factors. The ATIS was reporting visual conditions; but the side of the airport we came in from was such that I think the poor visibility (around 5 miles) caused us to feel like we were further away than we were and had more time to get down. We had the ILS tuned in and of course had DME but failed to watch them close enough. I think we where just expecting to be able to do it completely visual. We both got up that morning around XA:30 for our XC:00 show. I had 2 long days of ground school the 2 days before; one day off before that and five long days of flying before that. The night before this I had been up many times helping to care for my sick children. The point is I was definitely tired. I should have called in fatigued. I didn't because I would lose pay and the culture at my airline is that it is frowned upon to do so. Unfortunately flying tired is something I'm very used to doing and I've grown accustomed to it. This is by far the worst result of it for me. Maybe the fact that I knew I had a long overnight caused me to feel like I just had to get through the day and then could rest. It should be noted that both pilots have been on reserve for 2 years at the company. I feel ashamed that we let this happen; we should be more professional no matter what our personal circumstances or busy flying schedules.

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.