At 1038 Central time, the airplane was substantially damaged when it impacted trees following a loss of control during a go-around at the Saline County Airport (M99), near Benton, Ark. The solo student pilot was seriously injured. The supervised solo flight originated approximately eight minutes prior to the accident. After takeoff, the student pilot decided to perform a short field landing. While on final approach for Runway 17, he realized the airplane was a little high and selected 40 degrees of flaps, while noting the wind to be variable. The airplane started to drift left of the runway centerline while on short final. The student pilot crabbed the airplane into the wind attempting to line up on the runway centerline. The student pilot stated he had plenty of available runway remaining, but did not feel comfortable with the approach and decided to go around. After applying full power and pushing the carburetor heat to the cold position, he noticed the airplane was not gaining altitude that fast and was still drifting to the left. He realized he still had 40-degrees of flaps selected and retracted the flaps to 0 degrees. Subsequently, the airplane impacted trees approximately 100-yards left of the runway, at the midfield point, and came to rest in a nose-low position.
June 05, 2004, Benton, Ark. / Cessna 150
At 1038 Central time, the airplane was substantially damaged when it impacted trees following a loss of control during a go-around at the Saline County Airport (M99), near Benton, Ark. The solo student pilot was seriously injured. The supervised solo flight originated approximately eight minutes prior to the accident. After takeoff, the student pilot decided to perform a short field landing. While on final approach for Runway 17, he realized the airplane was a little high and selected 40 degrees of flaps, while noting the wind to be variable. The airplane started to drift left of the runway centerline while on short final. The student pilot crabbed the airplane into the wind attempting to...
Key Takeaways:
- A solo student pilot was seriously injured, and his airplane substantially damaged, after impacting trees following a loss of control during a go-around at Saline County Airport.
- The go-around was initiated due to an unstable approach where the aircraft was high and drifting left, despite the pilot having sufficient runway remaining.
- During the go-around, the pilot failed to promptly retract the 40 degrees of flaps, which resulted in inadequate climb performance and continued left drift, leading to the impact.
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