A320
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Type 247
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Speed All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach
Procedure
This report is an informational/safety report. No deviation from a clearance occurred during this incident. In fact; that was part of the problem. We were arriving into EWR; being vectored for the ILS 22L in nice clear VMC. Dispatch had advised me on the flight plan that arrival rate exceeded capacity; so we were carrying extra gas. ATC put us into a very; very bad position; both physically and with respect to legal compliance with FARs. We had come up from the south on the PHLBO; and flown EWR's 20 mile arc. On base; we received the following clearance: turn right to (some dogleg heading; approximately 190); maintain 3000 until established; cleared the ILS 22L; 170 kts to BUZZD. It was odd that they were issuing clearances for the ILS in perfect VMC. But it wasn't just us. That's what everyone was getting. It was also odd that ATC left us at 3000 instead of the usual 2500 for glideslope intercept. (Later we realized this must have been because of Teterboro's pattern - everyone was getting maintain 3000 until south of Teterboro). The dogleg vector put us between BUZZD (FAF) and GIMEE; but had us coming in at a very shallow angle. And the wind was from the east; pushing us away. There was an aircraft 4 miles in front of us. It was obvious very quickly that were going to need to descend long before we were on the LOC ('established') in order to make the energy state work out normally. However; that was not our clearance. The clearance was to maintain 3000 until established. Although the vector brought us in outside the FAF; when we finally got case break on the LOC; we were very high. But that was not a surprise. I was flying; and I told the FO that I was going to fly the clearance; knowing that we were going to be high; but also knowing that the Airbus was capable of descending quickly to glideslope in the right configuration. As soon as we had LOC case break I called for flaps 3; gear down; punched off the autopilot; and started down. It was actually going to work out fine before 500 ft - until tower sent us around. Tower sent us around; with no explanation; about 4 miles out and at 2000 ft; with the aircraft in front of us just coming up on the threshold. Approach asked us for the reason for the go-around; and we didn't know. We told them tower sent us around. We ended up doing the whole 20 mile arc again; as is their routine out there. The second time around; the vectors were MUCH more conservative; and the clearance was for the visual. We landed without incident; just under 4900 lbs of gas.To summarize; ATC gave us a very poor (in geometry and energy state) and inappropriate (ILS clearance on a VMC day with arrivals exceeding capacity and tight spacing) clearance. As given; we had no choice but to comply with the clearance; even though we knew it was going to be tough to make the energy gates and landing. Our other choice at the time (advocated by my FO) would have been to cheat and descend in violation of our clearance. It was Catch-22. We realized later that another option would have been to ask for altitude relief; or try to get a visual clearance. But in the moment we did not think of that. Obviously; my concern here is that ATC put us in an impossible spot; and they need to be doing a better job of handling the traffic NOT at our expense (figuratively and literally). We had jumpseaters that day; and one of them pointed out that with the un-slotting of EWR; he has seen an uptick in this type of go-around. And it is likely to get worse as the summer progresses. During the go-around; which was calm and controlled; all callouts were made. However; we started at 2000 MSL; and at first were only cleared to 2500 MSL. I was hand flying; and the speed got away from me during the level off and I oversped the flaps (flaps 3). While that was happening; we switched to Approach and got cleared to 5000. I could have just continued climbing and avoided the overspeed; but I did not hear the clearance to 5000 in all the radio traffic and task saturation of the go-around.
A320 Captain reported experiencing a low fuel state due to questionable vectors and a Tower directed go-around at EWR.