Cessna 177B N34508

Summary

On 23 June 2009 at about 23:00 local time, a Cessna 177B registered N34508 was involved in an accident near Elyria, Ohio, United States. One person was on board and one had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

23 June 2009 at 23:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Elyria, Ohio, United States

Nearest airport

Elyria Airport (1G1)

Coordinates

41.3317, -82.1003

Aircraft

Cessna 177B

Registration

N34508

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Elyria → Elyria

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN09CA381

1 person had minor injuries.

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.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The accident occurred during the student pilot's second landing on her first solo flight. She stated that 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 some trees situated alongside the runway. To correct for the left veer, she applied right rudder and, in an attempt to decrease drag, 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. The engine firewall and fuselage were substantially damaged during the event. 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 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.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.