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‘What’s happening?’

By NASA · March 28, 2023 ·

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.

Instructor met the student for the first time. The student was already a rated private pilot with an instrument rating. However, the student hadn’t flown in 20 years and their goal was to get back into flying and eventually finish their commercial training.

The student had flown with two previous instructors at the school with the most recent flight lesson being entirely in the traffic pattern the day before.

Student taxied and maintained centerline while heading towards the end of the runway. We received clearance to takeoff and student had controls.

The student smoothly increased power to takeoff and we were rolling.

Approximately halfway through the takeoff roll the student suddenly put in hard left rudder. Instructor commanded student to stop, but the student continued hard left rudder while saying “what’s happening?”

By the time student relinquished the controls we were already in the grass between the runway and taxiway.

Primary Problem: Ambiguous

ACN: 1931470

About NASA

NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) captures confidential reports, analyzes the resulting aviation safety data, and disseminates vital information to the aviation community.

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Comments

  1. Dave Hett says

    March 30, 2023 at 7:29 am

    Without knowing why he hard ruddered to the left, we know nothing.

  2. scott k patterson says

    March 29, 2023 at 9:04 am

    Like everything else these days, reports keep getting more bizarre.

  3. James Brian Potter says

    March 29, 2023 at 6:51 am

    Could be there was some psychiatric problem or stroke complications with the student. We don’t know how old he is, only that he hasn’t been in the left seat for 20 years. Not knowing that his foot was on left rudder is a very telling tale of something amiss. I assume this was reported to the authorities, and perhaps the student should have his license lifted out of an abundance of caution.
    Regards/J

  4. Jim Smith says

    March 29, 2023 at 6:35 am

    What was the purpose for this trivia 🤔

  5. David Jepson says

    March 29, 2023 at 5:16 am

    And what were we supposed to learn from this report? Two minutes of my life I’ll never get back…

  6. Ken T says

    March 29, 2023 at 5:09 am

    And THEN??????

    This is the most worthless report ever published. What’s the point if nothing can be learned from it.

    Why does “General Aviation News” consider this newsworthy?

  7. CFII says

    March 29, 2023 at 5:04 am

    Perhaps this student should take another 20, 40 or even 60 years off. The cockpit is not the place to work out their problem.

  8. Some Pilot says

    March 29, 2023 at 4:34 am

    “By the time student relinquished the controls we were already in the grass between the runway and taxiway.”

    Good names for band:

    “Student Relinquished”

    Good song name: “Already In The Grass”

    • Jim says

      March 29, 2023 at 9:34 am

      Those of you who can’t learn anything from this report stop reading here.

      For those of you who appreciate the opportunity to learn consider this. A flight instructor must be prepared for and not surprised by anything that happens while he/she is providing flight training. Whenever on or near the ground practice “defencive positioning” . That is, keep your feet lightly on the rudder peddles and your hands near the stick or yoke and throttle. Prior to getting into the airplane with a new to you pilot get a sense of their knowledge and experience past and recent. Do this in normal conversation about the lesson you have planned. Make a judgement of their health and attitude on that particular day. If you see any red flags don’t fly with them.

    • Pablo says

      March 29, 2023 at 5:05 pm

      LOL

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