Narrative:

Vectored to the usual 35 mile final for ILS. '180 knots to FAF; contact tower at FAF.' coming down the approach that never ends; I noticed traffic backed up on the [local] expressway and started thinking how it was nice not to be stuck in that. Unfortunately; my mind wondered to other related topics. Although I was watching the runway the whole way down; in my apparent daydreaming; it didn't click how close we were getting to it. At about 800 feet AGL; the first officer says; 'oh; do you want flaps 3?'; followed by a landing gear alert from the egpws. My mind finally snapping back from lala land; told him 'oh @&$!; no; let's go around.' we broke off the approach and TRACON was kind enough to get us back in pretty quick. Besides a bruised ego; the second approach attempt was successful and uneventful. A temporary loss of situation awareness by both crew members and insufficient threat management on my part. I think some mild fatigue didn't help. Unfortunately; being primarily in the training department; I don't fly as much as I used to. I pick up trips to stay current. Otherwise; due to training workload; I would fly even less. I used to be able to get right back in the cockpit and not miss a beat. The day prior to this; I would say that was the case. But; with age and maybe some mild fatigue added to the mix; this event has taught me I can no longer rely on that 'like riding a bicycle' feeling. I will need to make it more of a point to the first officers to not let the 'cka' next to my name keep them from watching me.in this particular case; the first officer stated that he was distracted as well; which was probably the case since he was pretty sharp. It was also a good training opportunity to emphasize to him to not let a captain (or himself) try to salvage an un-stabilized approach like that. A non-punitive go-around is much preferable to a starring role in a foqa video.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reported they did not configure final flaps in the approach and thus executed a missed approach.

Narrative: Vectored to the usual 35 mile final for ILS. '180 knots to FAF; contact tower at FAF.' Coming down the approach that never ends; I noticed traffic backed up on the [local] expressway and started thinking how it was nice not to be stuck in that. Unfortunately; my mind wondered to other related topics. Although I was watching the runway the whole way down; in my apparent daydreaming; it didn't click how close we were getting to it. At about 800 feet AGL; the First Officer says; 'Oh; do you want Flaps 3?'; followed by a Landing Gear alert from the EGPWS. My mind finally snapping back from LaLa Land; told him 'Oh @&$!; no; let's go around.' We broke off the approach and TRACON was kind enough to get us back in pretty quick. Besides a bruised ego; the second approach attempt was successful and uneventful. A temporary loss of situation awareness by both crew members and insufficient Threat Management on my part. I think some mild fatigue didn't help. Unfortunately; being primarily in the Training Department; I don't fly as much as I used to. I pick up trips to stay current. Otherwise; due to training workload; I would fly even less. I used to be able to get right back in the cockpit and not miss a beat. The day prior to this; I would say that was the case. But; with age and maybe some mild fatigue added to the mix; this event has taught me I can no longer rely on that 'like riding a bicycle' feeling. I will need to make it more of a point to the First Officers to not let the 'CKA' next to my name keep them from watching me.In this particular case; the First Officer stated that he was distracted as well; which was probably the case since he was pretty sharp. It was also a good training opportunity to emphasize to him to not let a Captain (or himself) try to salvage an un-stabilized approach like that. A non-punitive go-around is much preferable to a starring role in a FOQA video.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.