The solo student pilot reported that, while on final approach to land at the airport in Dillon, Montana, he decided to initiate a go-around.
He applied full power and pitched up the Cessna 172, which then stalled and turned left about 90°.
He was able to recover from the stall, but the plane was close to the ground.
Subsequently he landed the airplane in an open field. The student saw an irrigation ditch ahead and attempted to become airborne again, but the plane did not gain sufficient lift and hit the ditch.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, while the student sustained serious injuries.
Probable Cause: The student pilot’s exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle attack during an attempted go-around, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.
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This December 2020 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.
Many of us were taught the “departure stall” as likely in our takeoff scenario but too rarely was it taught as inherent risk in the “go around” scenario. Especially if trimmed to hold approach airspeed, students have to realize that bringing power up from 1500RPM to climb power will tend to decrease airspeed (pitch up) when one is already close to the aircraft’s stall speed. Failure to aggressively pitch forward (and trim forward as well) has nasty consequences. Glad to see this student survived learning this the hard way.
… and the landing configuration almost always has Full Flaps which adds even more force to not pitch up. I learned this on my first solo in a 152.
This should NOT have happened. Improper training and not noticing the critical AOA seem to be the culprit.