Cessna 172N N5088K

Summary

On 31 July 2002 at about 22:15 local time, a Cessna 172N registered N5088K, operated by The Pilot Center, was involved in an accident near Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

31 July 2002 at 22:15

Classification

Accident

Location

Fort Collins, Colorado, United States

Nearest airport

Fort Collins Downtown (3V5)

Coordinates

40.6505, -105.0303

Aircraft

Cessna 172N

Registration

N5088K

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

The Pilot Center

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

FT Collins → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

DEN02LA086

Nobody was injured.

the student pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control and subsequent inadvertent stall/mush into terrain during a soft field take off. Contributing factors include the pilot's lack of experience and the high density altitude conditions.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The student pilot had just finished practicing several soft field take offs and landings with an instructor and was on his first solo flight of the day. After taxing to the end of runway, he pulled the yoke back all the way, and added full power. Following rotation, the airplane came straight up in a 45-degree incline. At approximately 20 feet in the air, the airplane drifted off to the right of the runway, struck the ground with its left wing tip, bounced up and then it struck the ground a second time. The ground impact collapsed and sheered off the nose landing gear, buckled the firewall, and bent the outboard 4 feet of the right wing spar.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.