Aviation Safety Reporting System

In the future, the pilot will avoid any smoke plumes to give clearance to firefighting aircraft.

It is characteristic of the brakes on this aerobatic airplane that they are not very effective, as the plane was designed to be operated from grass strips, at least so I have been told by pilots where the airplane is very popular. It takes great foot-pedal effort to get the wheels to lock.

The Citation pilot radioed that they were going to line up and wait, then said “sorry guys” over the radio.

This has become a concerning trend with local tower controllers trying to fit too many planes in too tight spots between all the corporate, general aviation, high volume of training flights, and airline traffic.

Settling into ground effect the student prematurely pulled power to idle and abruptly reacted by adding significant back pressure while simultaneously locking up on the controls.

Upon receiving something outside my normal experience, I could have requested a change in pattern and reminded tower of student status, which may have changed tower’s approach to the line-up.

After landing we inspected the inside of the engine cowl to find a wrench lodged. A more thorough preflight by my student may have found the wrench.

Being unable to steer the aircraft, the nose gear collided with the runway sign, which resulted in the nose gear retracting and the nose of the aircraft plowing into the grass.

It is known at my flight school that this airport has had many problems with general aviation pilots being unsafe.