Narrative:

On approach following three hour redeye. Visual backed up by ILS. Winds 270/25g47. Expected strong winds due to forecast but only 30 degrees off nose so went flaps 3/med ab and bumped up vapp for landing. Approach fine till below 1;000 feet. Turbulence got extremely rough as gusts were pounding the aircraft on descent. Ap doing its job but [I was] guarding controls. Somewhere between 200 and 500 feet (not really sure) a gust of wind literally lifted the left wing to almost a 45 degree roll right. It happened so fast and so abruptly ap never kicked off. I turned off ap and immediately counter banked back toward runway and level attitude. As I was doing that another gust pushed us right again and down. Never experienced anything like this in a jet. Executed go-around immediately upon second recovery. We are so light these days that vapp is 119/120/121...ridiculously low speeds. At toga power; the aircraft climbed like a rocket. I was so busy working nose attitude to prevent flap overspeed and battling continued gusts that I overshot map altitude badly. After settling down and correcting back to map altitude; we set up and executed another approach. This time; despite gusts and crosswind; I was able to put the aircraft on the runway and conclude the flight. To say I was rattled would be an understatement. I am concerned that we are flying these aircraft too light. I understand the virus and crisis; too few passengers and baggage; but under certain conditions (like mine) I feel that aircraft was too light for what it encountered. If we are going to destination with high crosswinds/gusts forecast we need to put more fuel on board; I understand that costs money but it is the only ballast we can add to the aircraft at this time for increased weight. I might be totally off base but if that gust had been stronger; or if the crosswind more to the left; I really don't want to think about what might have happened. I feel this issue should be addressed/highlighted. Also; the fact that it happens after a redeye when you've been up all night and are not 100% further compounds the issue. The aircraft is a handful at toga and such light weights. Added vigilance is a must. We are operating at low weights due to pandemic and low passenger counts; lower than ever before. It is still within legal limits obviously but I feel my situation shows how combination of environment both for pilot and aircraft; and these lower weights warrants highlighting extra vigilance when encountering this combination of factors.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew reported overshooting a charted altitude during a go-around. The Captain stated the very low aircraft weight associated with the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an abnormally high climb rate.

Narrative: On approach following three hour redeye. Visual backed up by ILS. Winds 270/25G47. Expected strong winds due to forecast but only 30 degrees off nose so went Flaps 3/MED AB and bumped up Vapp for landing. Approach fine till below 1;000 feet. Turbulence got extremely rough as gusts were pounding the aircraft on descent. AP doing its job but [I was] guarding controls. Somewhere between 200 and 500 feet (not really sure) a gust of wind literally lifted the left wing to almost a 45 degree roll right. It happened so fast and so abruptly AP never kicked off. I turned off AP and immediately counter banked back toward runway and level attitude. As I was doing that another gust pushed us right again and down. Never experienced anything like this in a jet. Executed Go-Around immediately upon second recovery. We are so light these days that Vapp is 119/120/121...ridiculously low speeds. At TOGA power; the aircraft climbed like a rocket. I was so busy working nose attitude to prevent flap overspeed and battling continued gusts that I overshot MAP altitude badly. After settling down and correcting back to MAP altitude; we set up and executed another approach. This time; despite gusts and crosswind; I was able to put the aircraft on the runway and conclude the flight. To say I was rattled would be an understatement. I am concerned that we are flying these aircraft too light. I understand the virus and crisis; too few passengers and baggage; but under certain conditions (like mine) I feel that aircraft was too light for what it encountered. If we are going to destination with high crosswinds/gusts forecast we need to put more fuel on board; I understand that costs money but it is the only ballast we can add to the aircraft at this time for increased weight. I might be totally off base but if that gust had been stronger; or if the crosswind more to the left; I really don't want to think about what might have happened. I feel this issue should be addressed/highlighted. Also; the fact that it happens after a redeye when you've been up all night and are not 100% further compounds the issue. The aircraft is a handful at TOGA and such light weights. Added vigilance is a must. We are operating at low weights due to pandemic and low passenger counts; lower than ever before. It is still within legal limits obviously but I feel my situation shows how combination of environment both for pilot and aircraft; and these lower weights warrants highlighting extra vigilance when encountering this combination of factors.

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.