Event IAD99LA016

Factual narrative

On November 15, 1998, at 1146 eastern standard time, a Cessna 152, N89101, was substantially damaged after a loss of control during landing at the Essex County Airport (CDW), Caldwell, New Jersey. The certificated student pilot was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local solo instructional flight that originated at CDW, at 0950. No flight plan had been filed for the flight conducted under 14 CFR Part 91. In a telephone interview, the pilot said the purpose of the flight was to practice flight maneuvers for a flight evaluation he had scheduled for later in the month. He departed the traffic pattern, flew to a local training area, completed the planned training, and returned for landing on runway 27. The pilot said that prior to departure he obtained weather information from DUATS, Flight Service, and the local ATIS. He said: "Everything went fine. I went out and did all my training. When I came back, conditions were different, they were gusty. My approach speed was 60, but my ground speed was significantly slower. When I touched down, a gust lifted me. I tried to do a full power go around, but the plane wouldn't climb. It just descended. When I added full power, the nose was too high - it wouldn't climb - it just veered to the right and stalled. The gust gave it a nose high pitch. I had 30 degrees of flaps in, which may have been too much flaps for that kind of a gust." When questioned about the airworthiness of the airplane, the pilot said, "The airplane performed fine, I had no problems with the airplane at all." The pilot reported approximately 145 hours of total flight experience; 45 hours of which were solo. Winds reported at the time of the accident were from 300 degrees at 12 knots gusting to 20 knots. The student pilot practiced flight maneuvers for approximately 2 hours during the local solo flight. During landing on runway 27, the pilot said a gust of wind lifted the airplane to a nose high pitch attitude. Full power was applied to abort the landing but the airplane would not climb. The airplane descended and collided with terrain. The student pilot reported there were no mechanical deficiencies with the airplane. Winds were reported to be from 300 degrees at 12 knots, gusting to 20. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12