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CEN13CA087

2012-11-20 · Red Oak, Iowa, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport RDK

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The loss of control while landing due to the solo student pilot's delay to execute a go-around and his improper control inputs during a bounced landing.

Factual narrative

The student pilot was on the third leg of a VFR solo cross country flight. His intent was to do a touch-and-go landing and then return to his initial departure airport. During his first and second approaches, he executed go-around maneuvers due to what he described as turbulence when the airplane came into ground effect. During the third approach, he landed to the left of centerline and the airplane began to skid to the left. The student pilot stated that he applied the wrong rudder correction and the airplane went off the runway. He added power to try to pull up and the right wing stalled. The left wing hit the ground and the airplane came to rest nose down in a bean field adjacent to the runway. Both wings sustained substantial damage. The student pilot had a total of 25 flight hours in the airplane, with 4.2 hours as pilot-in-command (solo). The wind was calm at the time of the accident. Postaccident examination of the airplane did not reveal any evidence of preimpact mechanical malfunction or abnormalities. The student pilot was on the third leg of a VFR solo cross country flight. His intent was to do a touch-and-go landing and then return to his initial departure airport. During his first and second approaches, he executed go-around maneuvers due to what he described as turbulence when the airplane came into ground effect. During the third approach, he landed to the left of centerline and the airplane began to skid to the left. The student pilot stated that he applied the wrong rudder correction and the airplane went off the runway. He added power to try to pull up and the right wing stalled. The left wing hit the ground and the airplane came to rest nose down in a bean field adjacent to the runway. Both wings sustained substantial damage. The student pilot had a total of 25 flight hours in the airplane, with 4.2 hours as pilot-in-command (solo). The wind was calm at the time of the accident. Postaccident examination of the airplane did not reveal any evidence of preimpact mechanical malfunction or abnormalities. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Incorrect action performance-Student pilot - C
  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-(general)-(general)-Student pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2012_CEN13CA087.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, loss of control, go-around, turbulence). All research papers