Cessna 172 N97116 accident near Gulf Shores, Alabama

Probable cause

The pilot's improper landing flare, which resulted in a hard landing.

NTSB analysis

The commercial helicopter pilot, who was enrolled in transition training for airplanes, stated that he made a normal approach to land the airplane, but when he pulled back on the control yoke, the nose of the airplane did not come up as expected. The airplane had a flat attitude, landed hard, and bounced four or five times, which resulted in damage to the firewall, the nosewheel, and both propeller blades. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the control yoke had minimal movement due to the upper yoke control tubes at the chain sprocket binding against the aluminum channel brace due to the bent firewall. The examination also found that the elevator trim tab cable had slack and was not rigged correctly, which was not due to the hard landing: when the trim tab wheel was moved, the cable's center travel block would catch on the aft tail cone bulkhead. However, subsequent examination of the airplane did not reveal any evidence of a preimpact elevator control problem, despite the rigging of the elevator trim tab cable. A student pilot who had flown the airplane before the accident flight had not reported any issues with landing the airplane.

At the time of the accident, the pilot had accrued 29 hours of flight experience in single-engine airplanes. About 1 month after the accident, the pilot flew with a Federal Aviation Administration designated pilot examiner (DPE) and, according to the DPE, executed several landings that had a flat attitude versus a nose-high attitude. On one landing, the airplane bounced and then ballooned, which resulted in the DPE taking control of the airplane. The DPE later spoke with the pilot's flight instructor, who confirmed that the pilot tended to not properly flare on landing. Although the elevator trim tab cable was not rigged correctly, it did not impede the use of the elevator or the pilot's ability to properly flare the airplane for a safe landing. Thus, it is likely that the pilot did not flare properly, which resulted in a hard landing.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA17LA319 for the full record.