No fatalities

23 Jun 2009: CESSNA 177B — Elyria, OH

Elyria, OH, United States

On 23 Jun 2009, a CESSNA 177B was involved in an aviation accident near Elyria, OH. No fatalities were reported. Investigators recorded the probable cause as: The student pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control and adequate airspeed during the aborted landing, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall at a low altitude. This summary draws on records from NTSB; 12 related events involving the same aircraft type or operator are linked below.

SourcesNTSBPrimary reportUpdated 1778583330Data APIEditorial standards

During her first solo flight, a student pilot encountered porpoising after touchdown, aborted the landing, then experienced a stall during a go-around, resulting in substantial damage to the engine firewall and fuselage.

Accident Sequence

The accident occurred during the student pilot's second landing on her first solo flight. According to her account, the airplane began to porpoise immediately after the nose landing gear touched down. The airplane completed several porpoise cycles before she decided to abort the landing.

After increasing engine power and becoming airborne, the airplane began to veer left toward trees situated alongside the runway. To correct the left veer, she applied right rudder. In an attempt to decrease drag, she reduced the flap setting from 20 to 10 degrees. The airplane stalled during a right turn, about 20 to 30 feet above the ground, and entered a nose-down attitude. She was able to level the airplane before it landed hard on all three landing gear off the left side of the runway.

Pilot's Account

The student pilot stated that asymmetric loading of the propeller (P-Factor) caused the airplane to veer left after she increased engine power for the aborted landing. She also noted that she had not received flight instruction demonstrating the airplane's flight characteristics while in ground effect at airspeeds at or near stall speed.

Damage

The engine firewall and fuselage were substantially damaged during the event.

Contributing factors

Yaw control — Not attained/maintainedAirspeed — Not attained/maintainedStudent pilot