Event GAA16CA331

Factual narrative

The flight instructor reported that he and his student pilot had remained in the traffic pattern, and had been practicing short field landings and power off 180 degree accuracy turns. The flight instructor further reported that he instructed his student to perform a short field landing for their sixth and final landing, and once "they had the runway made", he would take the flight controls. He intended to demonstrate how "ground effect plays a part in our landings and how one can use it to their advantage if you were in a situation where one would be short on a power off 180 accuracy landing or in a real world situation". About 50 feet above the ground and over the runway threshold the flight instructor took the controls from the student pilot. He further reported that while he was talking to his student pilot about how "ground effect can extend your landing distance if you carry extra airspeed", he noticed that the pitch attitude was higher than normal and before he could add power or reduce the pitch attitude, the right wing "gave way" and impacted the ground, which resulted in substantial damage to the right aileron. The pilot verified that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The Federal Aviation Administration has published the Airplane Flying Handbook FAA-H-8083-3A (2004). This handbook discusses stalls and states in part: The key to stall awareness is the pilot's ability to visualize the wing's angle of attack in any particular circumstance, and thereby be able to estimate his/her margin of safety above stall. This is a learned skill that must be acquired early in flight training and carried through the pilot's entire flying career. The pilot must understand and appreciate factors such as airspeed, pitch attitude, load factor, relative wind, power setting, and aircraft configuration in order to develop a reasonably accurate mental picture of the wing's angle of attack at any particular time. It is essential to flight safety that a pilot takes into consideration this visualization of the wing's angle of attack prior to entering any flight maneuver. Stall accidents usually result from an inadvertent stall at a low altitude in which a recovery was not accomplished prior to contact with the surface. The flight instructor reported that he and his student pilot had remained in the traffic pattern, and had been practicing short field landings and power off 180 degree accuracy turns. The flight instructor further reported that he instructed his student to perform a short field landing for their sixth and final landing, and once "they had the runway made", he would take the flight controls. He intended to demonstrate how "ground effect plays a part in our landings and how one can use it to their advantage if you were in a situation where one would be short on a power off 180 accuracy landing or in a real world situation". About 50 feet above the ground and over the runway threshold the flight instructor took the controls from the student pilot. He further reported that while he was talking to his student pilot about how "ground effect can extend your landing distance if you carry extra airspeed", he noticed that the pitch attitude was higher than normal and before he could add power or reduce the pitch attitude, the right wing "gave way" and impacted the ground, which resulted in substantial damage to the right aileron. The pilot verified that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The Federal Aviation Administration has published the Airplane Flying Handbook FAA-H-8083-3A (2004). This handbook discusses stalls and states in part: The key to stall awareness is the pilot's ability to visualize the wing's angle of attack in any particular circumstance, and thereby be able to estimate his/her margin of safety above stall. This is a learned skill that must be acquired early in flight training and carried through the pilot's entire flying career. The pilot must understand and appreciate factors such as airspeed, pitch attitude, load factor, relative wind, power setting, and aircraft configuration in order to develop a reasonably accurate mental picture of the wing's angle of attack at any particular time. It is essential to flight safety that a pilot takes into consideration this visualization of the wing's angle of attack prior to entering any flight maneuver. Stall accidents usually result from an inadvertent stall at a low altitude in which a recovery was not accomplished prior to contact with the surface. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).

• C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Instructor/check pilot - C
• C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-Capability exceeded - C