Incident Overview
A student pilot, flying without a night flight endorsement, attempted to depart from an airport after dark. The pilot had lost track of time and decided to take off to return to his home base, motivated by concern that his flight instructor and the school president would be angry. During the departure, the pilot followed what he described as "green lights" and inadvertently used a 900-foot taxiway for the takeoff, resulting in a short-field takeoff.
Sequence of Events
According to the pilot, after initiating the takeoff, the nose pitched up and the airplane stalled. The pilot lowered the nose to recover from the stall, but was forced to raise the nose again because of trees ahead. The airplane then stalled a second time and subsequently collided with trees.
Pilot Statement
During an interview with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the pilot reported that the landing light was inoperative and that he had taxied to the runway using the green lights for guidance.