An air carrier flight failed to level at their cleared altitude while abandoning a circling approach...

Attributes
ACN	885375
Time
Date	201004
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	PIE.Airport
State Reference	FL
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Landing
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240 Flight Crew Total 14500 Flight Crew Type 800
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Overshoot Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Narrative:

We were on a flight to pie. There were storms around pie as well as en route. We used more fuel to get to pie than was planned. Upon arrival in the pie area we were told that weather covered the approach to runway 17L and that only an ILS 35R circle to land 17L was available. The wind was out of the south at about 13. That is too much wind to land on 35R in our aircraft type. The captain was flying. I was the non flying pilot. We did an approach and circle. On the circle we got into the weather that was on the north end of the airport and executed a missed approach. We were given an altitude of 1600 feet. When we got to it we briefly leveled and then despite my calls of the deviation went up to 2000 then eventually leveled at 3000. As we climbed the controller issued us the new altitude he saw us at. We were very low on fuel at this point and went to srq. Srq was not our alternate. We had no alternate. I went back and looked at the ft and concluded that we should have had an alternate.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier flight failed to level at their cleared altitude while abandoning a circling approach to their destination and then had to divert due to insufficient fuel to linger. No alternate had been planned.

Narrative: We were on a flight to PIE. There were storms around PIE as well as en route. We used more fuel to get to PIE than was planned. Upon arrival in the PIE area we were told that weather covered the approach to Runway 17L and that only an ILS 35R circle to land 17L was available. The wind was out of the south at about 13. That is too much wind to land on 35R in our aircraft type. The Captain was flying. I was the non flying pilot. We did an approach and circle. On the circle we got into the weather that was on the north end of the airport and executed a missed approach. We were given an altitude of 1600 feet. When we got to it we briefly leveled and then despite my calls of the deviation went up to 2000 then eventually leveled at 3000. As we climbed the Controller issued us the new altitude he saw us at. We were very low on fuel at this point and went to SRQ. SRQ was not our alternate. We had no alternate. I went back and looked at the FT and concluded that we should have had an alternate.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.