This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
Once I reached the runway I noticed that I was coming in a little fast, but didn’t think it was anything to worry about.
I took my power out, knowing that would slow the Cessna 172 down, but miscalculated how much runway I would still need.
I touched down on the runway, then ballooned back up, which felt fine because I had done that many times before.
The second time I touched down and ballooned back up I understand now that this is going to be a very complex situation.
The third time I came down, I stayed on the ground and had a moment where I decided I could either try to takeoff and put power back in, but I might hit the lights at the end of the runway, or I could just stay on the ground and stop.
In the split second decision I decided to stay on the ground as to not cause any damage to the plane and because there was not enough runway for me to make it back up.
As I came speeding directly for the lights I swerved to the right and ended up in a plowed bean field behind the runway. There I was stuck in the mud and called my instructor for help.
I then turned the plane off and climbed out in search of someone who could help me.
Primary Problem: Human Factors
ACN: 1964222
“ I touched down on the runway, then ballooned back up, which felt fine because I had done that many times before.”
Might wanna work in that.
I had a similar episode on a training lesson: coming to fast and ballooning. The cfi tried to salvage the landing and collapsed the nose gear. Go around if your landing is not stabilized.
Stabilized approach is the key to this, not when to go around after bouncing when too hot. Pilot who does this, especially if often, does not understand or trust their landing numbers. That go-around decision should be made before the wheels touch. If you are too hot to handle, still flying with too much energy when you should be out of energy and just about to stall in the flare over the runway, that is when you add power and try again. Trying to save the landing when too hot is usually the wrong decision unless it’s an emergency. Add full power and push the nose down as it is bouncing. “Instinctively” pulling the yoke or stick back when adding power will aggravate and continue the bounce. Trying to go around without pushing the nose down often results in exceeding AOA with resulting crash as soon as the aircraft leaves ground effect..
key word in this is “student” – one who seeks to learn. This is a learning experience which we have all had more than we should have. It all goes back to the instructor and I was fortunate to have one of the best in 1954. A gentle man named Stan Brugman who gently let me know when I did something less than perfect and praised me when I did a maneuver well. A private certificate is not the end but only a license to continue to learn. Result of Stan’s teaching – still flying today with no violations and only a couple of close call learning experiences.
While I certainly agree with the previous comments advising a go around, I suspect the underlying issue may be the pilot’s lack of understanding of appropriate energy management and the importance of a stabilized approach for landing. I certainly could be wrong, particularly as the specific landing airspeed wasn’t mentioned, but it appears the pilot failed to appreciate the importance of proper power and pitch settings to obtain the appropriate short final airspeed and decent rate. The pilot stated that upon reaching the runway, s/he was coming in a little fast, “but didn’t think it was anything to worry about”, and also didn’t have the throttle to idle at that point. Depending on the airspeed at the runway threshold, retarding the throttle and leveling the plane so that it can slow to a more appropriate airspeed, and then beginning the flare as it is about to settle on the runway would have likely resulted in a better outcome. And if there wasn’t enough runway left to safely land before enough energy/airspeed had dissipated, go around. However, by simply retarding the throttle and forcing the plane onto the runway a balloon was almost certainly going to happen. Often times a balloon is followed by a pilot induced oscillation resulting in a collapsed nose gear on the third bounce. The pilot even stated that “the balloon felt fine because I had done that many times before”, implying that s/he often lands with excessive airspeed. So it seems that some remedial (or perhaps primary?) training focusing on proper pitch and power settings in the landing configuration and energy/airspeed management would be appropriate to consider.
Per the FAA Handbook there’s nothing wrong with re-landing after a “very slight” bounce, assuming the pilot knows how to handle the pitch and power. It’s something that should be included pre-solo. I’ve seen plenty of airliners have ‘very slight’ bounces. However in this case, the initial flare was not good and nothing after that was good. Looks like training was not completed thoroughly.
We had a student fail his PPL checkride. One of the DPE‘s issues:
The applicant “bounced” one of his landings and immediately initiated a go-around. The DPE took the controls and ‘salvaged’ a landing out of it. He then told the applicant “…once you touch the runway, you are committed to landing…”
How is that for bizarre?
Need to report this DPE. He will get someone killed.
That is bizzare and totally wrong… If facts were as reported here, Applicant made the right decision. Shows good judgment. The examiner should have been reported and sent for retraining. Of course, if something dangerous was happening and the Examiner had to intervene, that’s always an automatic fail.
But a rule that says, “once you touch the runway you have to land” is an outright lie. A dangerous lie.
Agreed with the comments that going around after the first balloon would have been the thing to do. It also strikes me that, according to the account, the student first called his/her instructor and then shut the airplane down. This smacks of improper training, first on go-arounds so that they become second-nature, and second on order of actions in the event of an accident/incident. That this student has been allowed to solo when it has apparently been ingrained in him/her that one balloon is okay is an indictment of the (lack of) training s/he has received.
Never try to salvage a bad landing. If the aircraft bounces back in to the air. Apply full power and go around. The DPE who failed the student for going around should lose his DPE.
Just…wow.
Previous comments say it all. Go around.
When I was a young pilot this action was called “porpoising”.
My instructor, a WWII SBD dive bomber pilot, never included this in his lessons. He liked spins in his training.
I eventually did experience porpoising one day and chose to ride it out. Thankfully, I stayed on the runway. After talking to other pilots I was told to go around after the first bounce. Never happened again as I became focused on stabilized approaches with the correct airspeed.
This accident never should have happened. After you ‘ballooned’ the first time, you should have GONE AROUND. The fact that you thought that it was ‘fine and normal’ to bounce even once is unacceptable. When in doubt, go around. When the first thought of going around comes into your head, go around. Clearly this person did not think.
++1 –Should have never happened….
I disagree on they didn’t think — their statement shows they did think, that they could recover this because they have recovered before.
And I think that many students are implicitly taught that being able to recover a bad landing is having the right stuff. And as we see here, this is how it ends, somewhere off the runway, or with a collapsed nose gear and prop strike, or ground loop, etc.
Beans
What’s this guy smoking 🤔
Not a helpful response. The student is trying to learn and improve, and reflect.