Narrative:

We were flying to ZZZ. Neither I nor the captain had been to ZZZ before. The captain also had not flown in a couple of weeks he told me. ATC kept us high while arriving. As we came towards the airport I called it out but my captain said that wasn't it. I wasn't familiar with the area or airport; so I thought he knew it wasn't it. We were going in and out of clouds when center handed us off to tower. As we flew almost over the airport my captain then realized it was the airport. At the same time tower asked us our plans for the visual approach. My captain told me to tell them we wanted to join left downwind for the visual. At this time we were still very high; fighting turbulence; and gusty winds. ATC cleared us for the approach. He turned the ap off to do the visual. We backed it up with the RNAV. I feel as though my captain was too close to the airport to make a stable landing and I reminded him 'we can always go around.' the winds (I can't remember the exact direction) were almost a direct crosswind from the left. We were making a left pattern. This caused the plane to have a high airspeed on the base leg; causing him to overshoot final. Density altitude also did not help as we had a higher TAS and steeper angle to descend as well and decreased engine performance. He then decided to do a go-around. He hit toga but forgot to call for flaps which I then asked 'flaps 2?' he told me to put flaps 3 which I thought was odd. I then said positive rate and got the gear up. I also told tower that we are going around. They asked us our plans and he said he wanted to fly the pattern again but set up better. I told them that and requested a longer final. There was a small business jet landing and they said to follow behind them and to take as long of a final for whatever we needed. At this time he started turning but the airplane thought we were still doing the published missed. He was confused by this and overrode the ap. I was trying to help fix the automation because the at kept wanting to go full power. He clicked on heading mode but the heading bug was set to the runway and the plane started to turn to the heading. I quickly centered the heading bug back up. I was like just fly the airplane and deal with the automation later. He turned everything off at this point. I then was able to correct the automation and set the RNAV back up. By this time we were on downwind. He kept more distance and a longer final and we landed in very gusty winds and went back to the gate to debrief. There were a few causes that led to a unstable approach and go around. 1. ATC put us right over the runway very high. 2. The weather was not smooth and there were high winds 3. It is a difficult airport to land at. 4. The captain was rusty from not flying 5. I'm new and this was my first go around and the worst winds/turbulence I have experienced 6. Automation; in this case; hindered not helped us I think pilots need to constantly review profiles like the go-around profile to remember the call outs. I should have told the captain that flaps 3 was incorrect. More knowledge that when flying in the mountains ATC will keep you high all the way up to the airport; there aren't arrivals like in ZZZ that walk you down to keep a stable approach. More knowledge on high density altitude and the effects on flying. More knowledge of hand flying visual approaches; I don't think my captain realized the effect of a tailwind on base and that caused us overshoot.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew reported experiencing an unstabilized approach resulting in a go-around. Unfamiliarity with the airport and rustiness from lack of flying were cited as contributing factors.

Narrative: We were flying to ZZZ. Neither I nor the Captain had been to ZZZ before. The Captain also had not flown in a couple of weeks he told me. ATC kept us high while arriving. As we came towards the airport I called it out but my Captain said that wasn't it. I wasn't familiar with the area or airport; so I thought he knew it wasn't it. We were going in and out of clouds when Center handed us off to Tower. As we flew almost over the airport my Captain then realized it was the airport. At the same time Tower asked us our plans for the visual approach. My Captain told me to tell them we wanted to join left downwind for the visual. At this time we were still very high; fighting turbulence; and gusty winds. ATC cleared us for the approach. He turned the AP off to do the visual. We backed it up with the RNAV. I feel as though my Captain was too close to the airport to make a stable landing and I reminded him 'We can always go around.' The winds (I can't remember the exact direction) were almost a direct crosswind from the left. We were making a left pattern. This caused the plane to have a high airspeed on the base leg; causing him to overshoot final. Density altitude also did not help as we had a higher TAS and steeper angle to descend as well and decreased engine performance. He then decided to do a go-around. He hit TOGA but forgot to call for flaps which I then asked 'Flaps 2?' He told me to put flaps 3 which I thought was odd. I then said positive rate and got the gear up. I also told tower that we are going around. They asked us our plans and he said he wanted to fly the pattern again but set up better. I told them that and requested a longer final. There was a small business jet landing and they said to follow behind them and to take as long of a final for whatever we needed. At this time he started turning but the airplane thought we were still doing the published missed. He was confused by this and overrode the AP. I was trying to help fix the automation because the AT kept wanting to go full power. He clicked on heading mode but the heading bug was set to the runway and the plane started to turn to the heading. I quickly centered the heading bug back up. I was like just fly the airplane and deal with the automation later. He turned everything off at this point. I then was able to correct the automation and set the RNAV back up. By this time we were on downwind. He kept more distance and a longer final and we landed in very gusty winds and went back to the gate to debrief. There were a few causes that led to a unstable approach and go around. 1. ATC put us right over the runway very high. 2. The weather was not smooth and there were high winds 3. It is a difficult airport to land at. 4. The Captain was rusty from not flying 5. I'm new and this was my first go around and the worst winds/turbulence I have experienced 6. Automation; in this case; hindered not helped us I think pilots need to constantly review profiles like the go-around profile to remember the call outs. I should have told the Captain that flaps 3 was incorrect. More knowledge that when flying in the mountains ATC will keep you high all the way up to the airport; there aren't arrivals like in ZZZ that walk you down to keep a stable approach. More knowledge on high density altitude and the effects on flying. More knowledge of hand flying visual approaches; I don't think my Captain realized the effect of a tailwind on base and that caused us overshoot.

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.