20170330002249I

The pilot involved was a private pilot student on her first solo cross country with a route of hwo ? Phk ? Hwo. The aircraft involved was a 1975 Cessna 172M operated by ata flight school. The incident took place on the last leg of the cross country upon arriving at hwo. According to the student and the 8020-9 report winds at the time of the incident at hwo were approximately 120@11 KTS and the airport was vfr/vmc. I interviewed/counseled the student pilot and her CFI at the ata flight school at approximately 13:20LCL on 3/31/17. According to the student and the CFI all appropriate cross country planning and preflight tasks were performed prior to this flight. According to the student pilot she was cleared by tower for a straight in visual approach to rw 10R at hwo. She indicated that the landing was normal until she began decelerating and then the aircraft veered to the left and departed the runway, striking a taxiway sign on the left side of the runway in the grass area. At the time of my visual inspection of the aircraft in the ata flight school hangar at approximately 13:00LCL on 3/31/17 the left hand wing strut had scratch and dent damage to an approximately 6 inch area on the leading edge of the strut fairing and about 8 inches from the fuselage. Internal wing strut damage was unknown by ata mechanics at this point. Other apparent damage included an approximately 1 square inch chunk of the left hand wheel rim broken and missing. There was no other apparent damage to the aircraft indicated by me or the ata mechanics at the time of my interview/visual inspection on 3/31/17.

Upon counseling the pilot and CFI on 3/31/17 we discussed the need for the student to be ever vigilant about her foot placement on the rudder pedals upon landing and takeoff, the need to be cautious of distractions during takeoff and landing and the importance of not over-controlling while on landing roll-out or takeoff. It did not seem apparent to me during the interview that any of these issues were necessarily the cause of the incident but rather are issues that could potentially cause a landing or takeoff incident, especially for low-time student pilots. It also did not seem apparent during the interview that negligence, lack of skill or poor training on the part of the student or CFI was the cause of this incident. The student indicated that she did not sense any mechanical malfunctions with the aircraft that could have caused a loss of control. The CFI and the student also discussed the point that the next flight lesson or two would include takeoff and landing practice to build additional skill and confidence on the part of the student. The student mentioned that she would prefer to practice landings to a full stop instead of touch and gos, the CFI agreed.