29 Jul 2016: CESSNA 177 B

29 Jul 2016: CESSNA 177 B — Unknown operator

No fatalities • Wickenburg, AZ, United States

Probable cause

The pilot's incorrect balked landing procedure, which resulted in an uncontrolled descent, hard landing, a runway excursion, and nose gear collapse.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

The pilot reported that after a hard landing the airplane began to porpoise and he decided to abort the landing. The pilot reported that during the aborted landing, he added power and as the airplane began to climb, he retracted the flaps too soon and too quickly and the airplane settled back onto the runway, landed hard again, veered off the runway to the right, collapsed the nose gear, and stopped in a nose down attitude.

The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right aileron, fuselage, and empennage.

The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.

The procedures for a balked landing, as provided by Cessna, state:

1. Power – Full throttle and 2700 RPM

2. Carburetor Heat – Cold

3. Wing Flaps – Retract to 20 degrees

4. Upon reaching an airspeed of approximately 75 MPH, retract flaps slowly

The pilot reported as a safety recommendation to wait longer for the aircraft to further stabilize, gain speed, and begin climbing before retracting flaps.

Contributing factors

  • cause Pilot
  • cause Pilot
  • cause Directional control — Not attained/maintained
  • cause Pilot

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 220/17kt, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.