Regional Jet 700 ER/LR (CRJ700)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach
Human Factors; Aircraft; Procedure
I was assigned a maintenance ferry flight but I was not aware until I got to the airport that we would be flying the airplane back at flaps 8 the entire way. The instructions we received from Maintenance specifically stated that the flaps were to remain at 8 degrees for the entire flight including landing. I had flown the flight in and the First Officer stated that he was comfortable flying back under the guidelines stated above. The flight was completely uneventful until the landing. We had briefed multiple times the difference between a normal flaps 45 landing and the flaps 8 landing. Upon crossing the threshold the First Officer inadequately handled the aircraft and began what could only be described as oscillations that continued to get worse. I realized that the landing could no longer be made safely and took the controls from the First Officer to execute a go around. We followed the Tower's instructions and no vertical or lateral deviations were experienced. I kept control of the aircraft and we made an uneventful landing. I would like to commend the Controllers in their help and handling of the go around. They were very pleasant; helpful; and patient with working us back into the pattern. I'm always impressed with their skill and level of professionalism; however I just felt they went above and beyond in their assistance with this flight.The biggest threat was the fact that the aircraft had to remain at flaps 8. This is obviously outside of our realm of what's normal and how we operate on a daily basis. The landing technique is different; however we are trained for it in the simulator and I had complete confidence that the First Officer would have no problem handling the landing. The undesired aircraft state would be the oscillation which created the unstable approach and eventual go around. The First Officer made his errors through the landing technique; and not recognizing the need to abandon the approach and go around a little earlier. I think in the future when doing any flight like this I will be the pilot flying. Like I stated above; I didn't know I was going to be operating a flight back with the flaps stuck at 8. Had I known; I would've had the First Officer fly the first leg and I would have flown back. It would be nice to have some more communication from the company when being sent to do things like this. I always feel like these NRFO [Non Routine Flight Operations] operations aren't very well put together and it's almost like they've never done it before. From the flight crew's perspective it's very frustrating because we're the ones stuck with the airplane; and we're the ones that have to fly it. I just think there could be better procedures and channels to communicate with the flight crews in these situations.
Flew a ferry flight with flaps 8. The approach was stable but floated too far down the runway and executed a go around. ATC vectored us back around and gave us a longer runway and landed safely. Error on my part was leaving the power in too long. Should have reduced power earlier; preventing us from floating down the runway.
CRJ700 flight crew describe the events leading up to a go around from a flaps 8 landing on a maintenance ferry flight.