The flight instructor reported that with the student pilot on the controls for the landing, the Cessna 182 floated down the runway at the airport in Camas, Washington, and eventually touched down on the first third of the runway.
As the airplane bounced the second time, the instructor announced that he was assuming control of the airplane. He simultaneously advanced the throttle to full.
The student’s hand position on the throttle prevented full throttle application as the instructor attempted to gain altitude without stalling the airplane.
The airplane hit a fence near the departure end of the runway. Power was reduced and the flight instructor initiated a forced landing to an open field.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left side horizontal stabilizer.
The instructor reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable Cause: The student pilot’s improper landing flare, which resulted in a bounced landing, the flight instructor’s delayed remedial action, and the student’s failure to relinquish control, which resulted in a runway overrun and hitting a fence.
This December 2019 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
I experienced the same issue of “pilot failing to relinquish control” with a high-time ex-mil pilot who was doing a transition to small GA aircraft. In the early ’70s is was common to teach spins and recovery in our C-150s at the school in Tulsa. We had entered a spin up high (where it was cooler in July) and made a couple of turns. Time to recover…but the student was frozen and didn’t respond to “I’ve got it”. Smacked him on the wrist a couple of times and we did fine after that.
It turns out that 1) he had never been in a C-150 and had never spun a T-41, 2) the last several years he had been an aircraft commander on a SAC BUFF that never relinquished control unless it was his idea and certainly never even approached a spin, and most importantly 3) I had assumed that with his thousands of hours he surely knew all about this flying stuff.
From then on, one of the first discussions my students learned was the “my aircraft / your aircraft” exchange.
Seems this change of control maneuver should be part of early training. Practice the change don’t just explain how to do it.
Probably the thing most instructors fear the most is having a student get into difficulty and then refuse to relinquish the controls, whether through stubbornness or panic. I only instructed part-time for about 10 years back in the mid-70s through the mid-80s, but I had it happen several times. Fortunately none resulted in damage or injuries, but there were some close calls. There’s such a fine line between taking over too soon thereby squelching the student’s learning curve and taking over too late, and that line suddenly moves to way too late when the student won’t let go.
I remember hearing about a Mooney at the flight school where I got my CFI training that got into a spin and the instructor could not get the student who was a private pilot and owner of the plane to relinquish the controls. They never recovered but believed the CFI tried so hard to get him to let go of the controls that he actually broke the student’s arm. That story never left me.