EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Workload; Situational Awareness; Human-Machine Interface
Deviation - Altitude Overshoot; Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach; Flight Crew FLC complied w / Automation / Advisory
Weather
Enroute to ZZZ our dispatcher had notified us of reported moderate turbulence and the ATIS had mentioned that aircraft were experiencing airspeed losses/gains of 15kts on approach. With this in mind; we thoroughly briefed our plan of action regarding what we would do in the event we experienced a wind shear warning/caution throughout various stages of the approach. We informed the FAs and passengers that turbulence was expected during the approach; and had the FAs complete their service and be seated early. Descending on the arrival; turbulence began to increase and became continuous moderate below 6000 ft. Icing had been encountered; resulting in only about 40 kts between minimum safe speed and maximum flap speed in the landing configuration. Flight conditions were night marginal VFR with moderate precipitation. The AP and AT were engaged and the automation was doing an adequate job of tracking the localizer and glideslope but I had to make constant throttle adjustments to maintain a safe airspeed above the stick shaker and below the flap airspeed limitation. The aircraft was configured early and stable approach criteria were met at 1000 ft AGL on the ILS [Runway] XX. At around 500 ft AGL we received a windshear WARNING indication on the PFD and an annunciation. Since we received the windshear WARNING below 1000 ft AGL; I initiated a go-around maneuver while following our windshear recovery guidance per the AOM. The FO announced 'Going around [Runway] XX; windshear.' Tower gave us instructions to fly heading 195 and maintain 2000 ft. Per our guidance and as we had briefed; I left the aircraft configuration unchanged until reaching 1500 ft AGL. The first officer announced '1500 feet' and at the same time Tower told us that we were approaching a line of severe precipitation at our 12 o'clock and that we were to switch to approach control to receive vectors around it. I had the wx radar operating on my MFD and I attempted to adjust my radar angle in an attempt to locate the precipitation. The FO made the frequency change and was unable to get a word in right away as the controller was extremely busy. We entered the line of weather and experienced very turbulent air. With the turbulence; I focused on trying to continue configuring the airplane and capture the assigned altitude without overspeeding or stalling the aircraft. We then lost the ability to communicate over COMM 1 due to precipitation static. I directed the FO to switch to COMM 2. The FO was finally able to establish communication and the controller asked us what our assigned altitude was; at that moment I realized we were at 2400 ft and ATC then gave us an altitude relief of 4000 ft. We continued to clean up the aircraft and were trying to figure out why were unable to get the autopilot to engage. Hand flying the aircraft through the turbulence while evaluating the aircraft's flight director configuration; I became task saturated and shot through our altitude assignment of 4000 ft. At 4600 ft ATC queried our altitude and then gave us 5000 ft for relief. I finally noticed that the aircraft was still in windshear mode and the reason that the AP wouldn't reengage was due to me not calling for a vertical guidance mode. Once I called for vertical speed; we were finally able to get the autopilot engaged and the aircraft leveled off at 5000 ft. We were then given a heading of 240 degrees and to maintain a speed of 190 kts. With the new heading we finally left the worst of the turbulence; finished cleaning up the aircraft; ran checklists; and evaluated what we should do next. There were aircraft making it through the approach and we had enough fuel for one more try so I decided to attempt the approach one more time; and if that was unsuccessful we would then divert to our alternate of ZZZ1. On the second approach; we experienced similar turbulence on the approach but everything was within our stable approach criteria and we didn't receive another windshear WARNING annunciation so we landed the aircraft without any further issues. Thorough briefing of the windshear escape procedure and criteria earlier in the flight greatly contributed to its safe execution upon receipt of the aircraft's windshear WARNING. The FO did an excellent job overall. He was a valuable asset in helping me make sure we got the airplane back on automation when I was getting overwhelmed with flying the airplane and reminding me to run checklists after we got the airplane cleaned up and autopilot back on. In the future I would brief in even more detail; particularly in the specific call outs and configuration changes we should use while executing a windshear escape procedure and then once the aircraft is at a safe altitude. This would have helped in the confusion of getting the aircraft back on automation so we could have done it earlier and not deviated from our altitude clearances.
EMB-175 Captain reported they initiated a go-around below 1;000 feet due to severe weather and a windshear warning.