I've had a few go-arounds, but the most notable was a flight from Frankfurt to Moscow in June 1997. Lufthansa A320, full up, and I'm in a window seat with two beefy guys in my row (and I'm kind of a beefy guy myself). Horrible weather all across Poland and Belarus, up, down, trying to dodge thunderstorms, can't see a damn thing. Finally we approach Sheremtyevo. Long, circling approach. We break out and it's just a mess. Pilot gets it down to a few hundred feet, the crosswind is swirling, so whoom, go-around power, up and away. Circle around in turbulent clouds. Line up for the same approach (I recognize the big reservoir when we break out). We get a little farther this time, but at what seems like treetop level, he breaks off and climbs. Good performance on that A320! At this point the pax are a bit uneasy. (I am really, really happy at this point to be on a new A320 on LH and not some Soviet antique museum piece.) The captain gets on the P.A., says conditions are now below minimums at Sheremtyevo, we're going to head for Vnukovo. Very bumpy. A couple of minutes later he says Vnukovo and Domodedovo are now also below minimums, and we can make one more pass at Sheremtyevo, or else "make other arrangements that are inconvenient". (What that was in the alternate German, I don't know. Didn't sound good.) We head back to Sheremtyevo, really hoping for a break on the weather, and by now I think I've learned the ILS approach myself! We break out, it's still raining and blowing, but by goodness he sets us down and we roll out. Applause and cheering in German and Russian. Later, talking to the crew while waiting for immigration/customs, I learned that the "other arrangements" means landing at a Russian air force base, which he's done once before, and it's inconvenient since there are no facilities open to civilian airliners and you have to stay on the plane for however long it takes for your destination to become available. -- Michael C. Berch mcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx