This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
Prior to making the flight from ZZZ to ZZZ1, I met with my flight instructor to review my flight plan and briefing, which I created. All parameters were within the confines of my limitations for my student pilot endorsements for a student solo, cross-country operation.
This was my first cross-county solo flight in the aircraft. I was to make two full-stop landings at ZZZ1 as part of the flight, then return to ZZZ.
Takeoff from ZZZ and cruise to ZZZ1 were uneventful. I flew at 5,500 feet and reported transitioning the airspace above a non-controlled airport along the way.
Immediately after reporting this transition, and well prior to entering the Delta Airspace of ZZZ1, I switched my COM2 radio to ZZZ1 and got the latest automated weather report. I do not recall what the letter designation for the report was at the time, but the weather was clear with good visibility of 10+ miles, winds relatively calm, and a clear sky.
I then radioed the tower at ZZZ1 on their frequency and identified myself as a student pilot solo flight along with my relative position west of the airport and requested a full-stop landing while approximately 15 nm away. The Tower answered saying they were having difficulty hearing my transmission and to restate my position. I spoke more loudly and clearly, identifying my position as west at about 14.6 miles. They advised me to re-contact them when less than a mile from the runway. I began a descent appropriate to arrive at pattern altitude prior to radio contact.
When I got within a mile I radioed the tower and the tower advised me to turn for my base and that I was cleared to land. I executed turns to base and final without issue and extended full flaps incrementally. Upon entering final approach with full flaps I was just high of the glideslope as indicated by the PAPI system.
I entered my flair and “ballooned” slightly. When I came back down from ballooning, I came down hard and, in the process, experienced prop strike, front gear collapse, and damage to my right wing before coming to a stop on the grass to the left of the runway with the help of the grass to arrest my momentum. The plane came to rest in a nose-down fashion at an approximate 45° angle to the edge of the runway and in the direction of the landing.
After announcing over the radio that they have a crash on the runway, the tower radioed me to ask my condition and I replied that I was fine. I then noticed fuel leaking from my right wing and elected to shut down electrical items as a precaution. When the airport fire truck arrived, the operator sprayed foam on the area leaking as a precaution for the fuel leak. After several minutes, the responding airport staff strapped the nose wheel to the fuselage and were able to pull the plane to a storage hangar with a tractor by keeping the plane on the main landing gear and tugging the plane via the tail tie-down.
Primary Problem: Human Factors.
ACN: 1805685
No mention was made of the physical differences in runways between where the student spent most of their time versus where the accident took place. I’ve worked off of runways as narrow as 12′ and well over 100′ (Clinton-Sherman AFB for example). The sight picture for runways can be drastically different and very unexpected for newer pilots.
I would question how thoroughly the CFI had briefed / demonstrated this issue and whether it was a factor. How many of us haven’t flared too high when over a really wide runway the first time? I can happen to anyone and we need to prepare folks for it.
Aw CRAP!
Who amongst us has NOT ballooned a landing – especially early-on. Here is where hand on throttle during landing is imperative; as a judicious use of a burst of power can often “save” an otherwise bad landing (if there is sufficient runway remaining) – Or MUCH BETTER, an immediate application of FULL POWER for a go-around and try again. If you have this reaction for a bounce pre-planned in your head for each landing AND hand-on-throttle; it is MUCH easier to quickly execute.
Once a bounce has taken place, there is usually a strong urge to want to GET IT ON THE GROUND – NOW. This instinct must be fought and TRAINED OUT, because forcing the plane down generally results in a second or third bounce is where resultant repairs can become costly.
I hope that this student is able to recover from this bad experience and move on; possibly with a new instructor. Sometimes it helps to gain a new perspective from someone else AND practice lotsa’ GO-AROUNDS.
++1
I might add, that once working on a CPL, I came to see that TOGA is the correct response 99% of the time.
Actually have never ballooned leading to a porpoise, Never used FULL Power for a go-around. Fortunately my primary instructor was salty stick and rudder guy, my instrument and commercial was an aerobatics guy. They taught very well.
After a class you ask if there are any questions. No questions means you did an excellent job and everyone understands…or you did such a poor job no one understood enough to even ask a question.
The key is the instructor’s ability to self analyze and to also judge a student’s ability to comprehend.
Could happen to anyone, just a bad day. Keep up your spirits.