Cessna 177B N34508 accident near Elyria, Ohio

Probable cause

The student pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control and adequate airspeed during the aborted landing, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall at a low altitude.

NTSB analysis

The accident occurred during the student pilot's second landing on her first solo flight. She stated that the airplane began to porpoise immediately after the nose landing gear touched down. The airplane completed several porpoise cycles before she decided to abort the landing. After increasing engine power and becoming airborne, the airplane began to veer left toward some trees situated alongside the runway. To correct for the left veer, she applied right rudder and, in an attempt to decrease drag, reduced the flap setting from 20 to 10 degrees. The airplane stalled during a right turn, about 20 to 30 feet above the ground, and entered a nose-down attitude. She was able to level the airplane before it landed hard on all three landing gear off the left side of the runway. The engine firewall and fuselage were substantially damaged during the event. The student pilot stated that asymmetric loading of the propeller (P-Factor) caused the airplane to veer left after she increased engine power for the aborted landing. She noted that she had not received flight instruction demonstrating the airplane's flight characteristics while in ground effect at airspeeds at or near stall speed.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for CEN09CA381 for the full record.