Narrative:

Weather was 2 1/2 SM br OVC006. Transient pilot arriving runway xx checked in with tower at approximately 4 mile final. We noticed aircraft was east of final and going further east. Radar called up advising me to watch the C182 because he was off the final. I asked the pilot if he was correcting back. He said yes and asked if he would break out of the fog at 600 ft. I told him I wasn't sure; that the last I knew; the bases were 500 ft. At this point I felt he was to low and too far off course so I canceled his approach clearance and instructed him to fly heading 070 and to climb and maintain 2;000 ft. Pilot read back something unintelligible. We noticed he was tracking 150 degrees right into landing traffic. I again told him to turn left heading 070 and issued a climb and maintain 2;000 ft. This time he read it back and executed the instruction. The pilot sounded distressed from the very first transmission. He was vectored around the radar pattern to an ASR no gyro approach. We noticed he was still having difficulty making it to the runway. Aircraft landed without incident. We were later told the pilot reported having trouble with his auto pilot that was stuck on. Increase pilots awareness to let ATC know if he is having trouble with his aircraft. This could have been a mid air. Had the TRACON known from the very beginning they could have given him a lot of extra space or even went right to a no gyro ASR approach.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Tower Controller issued a go around to an aircraft attempting to execute an instrument approach that was unable to remain on course; the reporter noting the pilot should have given more information to ATC during this event.

Narrative: Weather was 2 1/2 SM BR OVC006. Transient pilot arriving Runway XX checked in with Tower at approximately 4 mile final. We noticed aircraft was east of final and going further east. RADAR called up advising me to watch the C182 because he was off the final. I asked the pilot if he was correcting back. He said yes and asked if he would break out of the fog at 600 FT. I told him I wasn't sure; that the last I knew; the bases were 500 FT. At this point I felt he was to low and too far off course so I canceled his approach clearance and instructed him to fly heading 070 and to climb and maintain 2;000 FT. Pilot read back something unintelligible. We noticed he was tracking 150 degrees right into landing traffic. I again told him to turn left heading 070 and issued a climb and maintain 2;000 FT. This time he read it back and executed the instruction. The pilot sounded distressed from the very first transmission. He was vectored around the RADAR pattern to an ASR no gyro approach. We noticed he was still having difficulty making it to the runway. Aircraft landed without incident. We were later told the pilot reported having trouble with his auto pilot that was stuck on. Increase pilots awareness to let ATC know if he is having trouble with his aircraft. This could have been a mid air. Had the TRACON known from the very beginning they could have given him a lot of extra space or even went right to a no gyro ASR approach.

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.