NYC95LA217

The student pilot was conducting takeoff and landing practice. On her fifth approach, she encountered an updraft, and added power to make a go-around. There was a crosswind from the right which drifted the airplane left, off the side of the runway toward trees. The wing flaps were extended 40 degrees, and when she attempted to retract the flaps 10 degrees she inadvertently retracted them 20 degrees. The airplane continued to drift left, over the tops of trees and when she pulled back on the yoke to stay out of the trees, the airplane stalled and crashed.

On September 2, 1995, at 1000 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 172, N7154T, struck trees during a go-around, at Quakertown Airport, Quakertown, Pennsylvania. The student pilot was not injured, and the airplane received substantial damage. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed for the local, solo training flight, which was conducted under 14 CFR Part 91, and departed at 0900.

In the NTSB Accident Report, the pilot stated:

...[I] was about to land for the fifth time. I was coming in on final on 29 and was over the runway waiting for the plane to flare. The winds were gusting at about 8 to 10 knots from the north. I got caught in an updraft. I felt I was too high to land so I decided to go around. I pushed the throttle full forward and began to do so. The correction I made for the wind was not enough to keep me over the runway. Another gust blew me to the left where there is a row of trees separated by about 60 feet of grass. I pulled [retracted] the flaps to try to gain some altitude. Instead of one [notch of] flap, two [notches] came out and made the situation worse blowing me further to the left. I was over the tree tops by then. I pulled up to keep the plane out of the trees and stalled. The plane lost all lift and dove to the ground....

The wing flaps were manually extended by depressing a thumb lock on the end of a bar located between the seats, and pulling up. The degree of movement on the lever controled the amount of flap extension. There were 5 detents which correspond to up, 10 degrees, 20 degrees, 30 degrees, and 40 degrees of flap extension.

In a telephone interview, the pilot reported she had extended the flaps to 40 degrees when she initiated the go-around. She attempted to retract the flaps to 30 degrees, however, they were inadvertently retracted to 20 degrees.

According to the Airport Facility Directory, runway 29 was 3,201 feet long, 50 feet wide, and had an asphalt surface.