2003-12 · NASA ASRS report 603898
A C172 PLT HAS AN UNSTABILIZED APCH RESULTING IN THE ACFT RUNNING OFF THE END OF THE RWY INTO MUD.
ON DEC/WED/03; I WAS RETURNING FROM A PLEASURE FLT WITH 2 PAX. AS WE NEARED ARPT; I TUNED ATIS AND RECEIVED THE WX AND RWY INFO. ARPT WAS LNDG RWY 19L&R. I CALLED THE TWR AND WAS GIVEN INSTRUCTIONS TO ENTER A 3 MI BASE FOR RWY 19L. RWY 19L IS THE SHORTER OF THE 2 RWYS; AT APPROX 2700 FT. AS I TURNED BASE TO A 1 MI FINAL; I REALIZED THAT I WAS HIGH ON THE DSCNT PATH. I REDUCED PWR TO IDLE AND PUT IN FULL FLAPS. OUR DSCNT STEEPENED. HOWEVER; AS WE CROSSED THE THRESHOLD OF RWY 19L; I REALIZED WE WERE NOT GOING TO HAVE ENOUGH LENGTH TO EFFECT A SAFE LNDG. I INFORMED THE TWR THAT I WAS GOING AROUND AND WAS GIVEN L CLOSED TFC. I APPLIED FULL PWR AND CLBED TO PATTERN ALT AND FLEW L TFC. AS WE TURNED FINAL; I REALIZED THAT WE WERE AGAIN A LITTLE ABOVE THE DESIRED DSCNT PATH. I INITIATED A FULL FORWARD SLIP AND WAS ABLE TO QUICKLY REGAIN THE PROPER ALT. AS I TOOK THE PLANE OUT OF THE SLIP; WE GAINED ABOUT 15 KTS; PUTTING OUR SPD AT ABOUT 85-90 KTS. I IMMEDIATELY PUT IN FULL FLAPS AND WE QUICKLY DSNDED TO THE RWY. AS I FLARED THE PLANE; WE PICKED UP SOME ALT; SO I REDUCED THE PITCH OF THE FLARE. WE CONTINUED FLOATING ABOUT 2 FT OFF THE RWY FOR A FEW SECONDS. THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH RWY LEFT FOR A SUCCESSFUL GAR; SO WHEN WE TOUCHED DOWN; I APPLIED FULL BRAKING PWR. WE SKIDDED DOWN THE RWY AND OFF THE DEP END INTO THE GRASS BY ABOUT 100 FT; WHERE WE CAME TO REST IN SOME MUD. THERE WAS NO DAMAGE TO THE PLANE; ASIDE FROM THE MAIN TIRES BEING WORN. NO ONE WAS HURT. ARPT'S FIRE DEPT WAS ABLE TO TOW THE PLANE FROM THE GRASS SUCCESSFULLY. I BELIEVE THE CAUSE OF THE FAILED LNDG WAS AIRSPD AND ALT. BOTH APCHS I REALIZED WERE TOO HIGH AND TOOK MEASURES TO CORRECT. ON THE SECOND APCH; I SHOULD HAVE ALSO GONE AROUND WHEN I SAW THAT THE PLANE WAS FLOATING BECAUSE OF THE EXCESSIVE AIRSPD. THE FORWARD SLIP WAS VERY EFFECTIVE FOR REDUCING ALT; BUT AS SOON AS I PULLED OUT OF IT; THE PLANE PICKED UP UNWANTED SPD. I ALSO SHOULD HAVE FLOWN A LONGER DOWNWIND SO THAT I WOULD HAVE HAD A LONGER FINAL APCH TO MAKE THE NECESSARY CORRECTIONS TO ANY DEVS IN ALT AND AIRSPD SAFELY. FINALLY; I SHOULD HAVE ALSO ASKED FOR RWY 19R (CONSIDERABLY LONGER) WHEN I REALIZED THAT I WAS HAVING DIFFICULTY LNDG ON THE SHORTER OF THE 2 RWYS.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
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.
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.
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.
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.