Communication in the area was encumbered by heavy usage and several radio calls we made were blocked due to other transmissions, leading to confusion over aircraft positions at the airport we were using.
Trim moves in wrong direction during training flight
The Cessna 172 started pitching up slightly nose high. The student was adjusting trim, and at some point I told him that “you are adjusting trim wrong direction.”
A student who doesn’t use checklists plus a broken fuel selector valve leads to engine losing power
I noticed he was very busy on final this last trip around, and it appeared at this time he was switching tanks. I have never instructed him to switch tanks on final before. For some reason, he continues to do things in the airplane that were not taught, or are in direct opposition to what was being taught. Most of them are minor, but fuel is something I’m very passionate about having on board.
CFI’s foot gets entangled in headset cord
During the turn, my foot became entangled in my headset cord. In an effort to manage the aircraft, I pulled my headset plugs from the ports and dislodged my headset on my head. It is a very confined area in a Cessna 152 and the ports are under the center portion of the instrument panel.
Pilot mistakenly takes off from taxiway
The Tower cleared me for takeoff, but did not say to use Bravo to get to the runway, which was behind me. Once cleared for takeoff I crossed both sets of dashed lines thinking I was on Runway XXR, but later realized I was aligned with a taxiway.
Student’s first cross-country ends with prop strike
I entered my flair and “ballooned” slightly. When I came back down from ballooning, I came down hard and, in the process, experienced prop strike, front gear collapse, and damage to my right wing before coming to a stop on the grass to the left of the runway with the help of the grass to arrest my momentum.
Near miss as CFI answers student’s question
I looked back outside in the general direction that the airplane was supposed to be at (right side) and saw the airplane in a steep bank at approximately 400 feet from us with no vertical difference. As soon as I saw them, I banked the airplane to the right and kept our climb pitch attitude. I reported to Tower that I had the aircraft in sight.
Unsafe buffoonery causes danger
During short final/touchdown we noticed the plane buzzed over the top of our aircraft at about 200 feet (ADS-B showing the information), causing undue danger in the event that we had to abort our landing for whatever reason. My instructor radioed to them about their unsafe buffoonery with zero recognition.
Pilot’s ego plays part in plane flipping over
The chain of events leading up to this incident were extremely interesting and like any error chain, there were numerous opportunities to break it.