Incident Overview
During an instructional flight, the flight instructor reported that on short final, he instructed the student pilot to "pitch down" to maintain airspeed. The student did not respond, and the instructor repeated the instruction, "pitch down now," while simultaneously pressing forward on the yoke. The student then pulled back with equal force. The instructor pushed forward with greater force and stated, "my plane," but continued to wrestle the controls as the airplane entered an aerodynamic stall and impacted the runway threshold hard. Following the impact, the nose gear collapsed and the airplane veered off the runway to the right.
Student Pilot's Account
The student pilot, on his first flight with this instructor but with about 82 hours of prior dual instruction, reported that during the second landing of the day, the instructor had him pull the power and told him to "nose down." The student felt they were getting low and requested to increase power, but the instructor insisted on "nose down." The instructor repeated this multiple times, but the student did not believe there was enough room to continue nose down. Subsequently, the instructor took the controls and nosed the airplane down, but the airplane impacted the runway threshold hard and veered off the runway.
Damage and Mechanical Status
The fuselage and firewall sustained substantial damage. Both the flight instructor and student pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Postaccident Correspondence
During postaccident correspondence with the National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge, the flight instructor reported that he could not recall discussing the positive transfer of flight controls with the student during preflight.
Advisory Circular Reference
The Federal Aviation Administration Advisory Circular 61-115, Positive Exchange of Flight Controls Program, dated March 10, 1995, states that during flight training, a clear understanding of who has control of the aircraft is essential. It recommends a preflight briefing on the exchange procedure and a positive three-step process: the instructor says "You have the flight controls," the student acknowledges "I have the flight controls," and the instructor repeats "You have the flight controls." The circular emphasizes that there should never be any doubt as to who is flying the aircraft.