20210429007579I

On April 29, 2021, N20106 a Cessna 172M, serial number 17261014, departed cobb county international airport (ryy), kennesaw ga. VFR, bound for cartersville airport (vpc), cartersville ga.. Onboard was the newly certificated private pilot, certificated on April 22, 2021 (pilot in command) and certificated atp/fe/fi (passenger). The passenger was not exercising his certificate privileges.

Enroute the pilot diverts to Polk county airport (4A4), Cedartown ga., this is due to flight activity at vpc. While at 4A4 he made several touch and go?s, the last of which was a short field touch and go. Upon returning to ryy the aircraft experienced a flat right main tire during landing rollout. The pilot was able to maintain control of the aircraft kept it on the runway. The pilot and passenger exited the aircraft and examined it for damage where the pilot noted damage to the leading edges of both horizontal stabilizers.

In the pilots written incident report completed on 5/5/2021, he states that he was doing approaches at 4A4, and during a short field touch and go as he applied full power to take off the engine hesitated. At that point he checked to make sure the carb heat was off and the mixture was full, which both were. As he is traveling down the runway he believes he is past the go or no go point and did not want to hit the barriers at the end of the runway. He rotated when he thought the aircraft would fly, however, his elevator controls were a little sluggish and during rotation he made minimal contact with one of the barriers. During the climb out all engine indications appeared normal and the aircraft seems to be flying normal. He then returns to ryy where upon landing rollout he had a flat tire.

There were active notice to airman (NOTAMS) for Polk county airport 4A4 that shows an 800FT. Displaced threshold and 3250FT. Tora, toda, asda and lda.

The passenger stated in a phone interview 5/14/2021 they had observed the runway barriers as they passed over the airport. He also stated that they had done a one or two touch and go?s prior to the short field touch and go in which they contacted the barrier.

Photos were received from the airport manager at Polk county airport (4A4) on 05/07/2021 of threshold displacement barriers. One of the barriers depicts black marks on top of it and the middle barriers appear to be out of alinement.

The pilot stated in a phone interview on 05/07/2021 that he has experienced the engine hesitation on previous flights while training. I inquired if he had reported the issue. He stated that he was receiving flight instruction at the time and thought the instructor reported it. I interviewed his most recent flight instructor, via phone on 05/14/2021, who had trained him since mid-february 2021. He stated that he has never experienced any mechanical/operational issues while training him in the aircraft.

A review of the aircraft maintenance records indicate that the aircraft received an annual/100 inspection on 04/13/2021, and was returned to service. The engine received an annual/100 hour on 04/13/2021, where all 8 spark plugs and ignition harnesses were replaced and timing was checked. The signoff indicated that all indications were normal and the engine was returned to service.