- Date
- May 6, 1996, 11:45 local (15:45 UTC)
- Place
- Winston-Salem, NC
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N97277Cessna 172
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report December 16, 1996
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19960506010149A
- Case key
- 3728
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot's improper use of the elevator in response to a bounced landing.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The pilot had been making touch and go landings and was executing his final landing. He reported that he elected to end the flight because of a fresh onset of stomach cramps from food poisoning the previous day. At touchdown, the airplane bounced which the pilot reported he countered by pulling the yoke aft. His next memory was of the airplane landing hard on the nose gear.
Factual narrative
On May 6, 1996, about 1145 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 172, N97277, landed hard during the landing touchdown at Winston- Salem, North Carolina. The airplane was operated by Piedmont Flight Center under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 91, and visual flight rules. A flight plan was not filed for the local, personal flight. The private pilot was not injured, and the airplane was substantially damaged. The flight originated about 1130, on the same day, at Smith Reynolds Airport, Winston-Salem.
According to the inspector who examined the airplane, the nose landing gear was pushed up into the gear housing, and the main landing gear track was two inches wider than that specified in the pilot's operating handbook. The inspector stated there was also damage to the bottom of the airplane that was consistent with a hard landing.
The pilot had been performing touch and go landings. He elected to end the flight with the onset of fresh stomach cramps from food poisoning the previous day. The pilot reported that the final landing resulted in the airplane bouncing. He pulled aft on the yoke, followed by a second touch down that was hard and on the nose wheel.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N97277
- Reported as
- Cessna 172
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17276172
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-D2J, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Robert L. Gates
- Registered owner
- Piedmont Flight Center
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- INT
- Airport
- INT · Smith Reynolds, runway 3, 3,938 × 150 ft, asphalt
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 33
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 86 total · 42 in this make and model · 36 as pilot in command · 4 in the last 90 days · 2 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 290° at 9 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 15,000 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 79 °F, dew point 61 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- INT, 1 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N97277 · 2
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.