N983AV

On March 10, 1999, at 1311 eastern standard time, a Cessna 172R, N983AV, piloted by a student pilot, sustained substantial damage after a hard landing, loss of control, and collision with a snowbank during landing roll on Runway 05 (10,003 feet by 150 feet, snow covered/asphalt) at W.K. Kellogg Airport, Battle Creek, Michigan. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The solo instructional flight was operating under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91. The flight was not operating on a flight plan. The pilot reported no injuries. The flight departed W.K. Kellogg Airport approximately 1305 for the local flight.

According to the pilot's written statement, the pilot flared the airplane, experienced, "... a little bit of turbulence...," and landed the airplane. The pilot reported that two or three seconds after touchdown the airplane started to slide to the left. The pilot stated that she applied full right rudder to compensate for the drift but the aircraft continued to slide. The pilot reported that the aircraft impacted a snowbank, on the left side of the runway, and the aircraft came to rest in an upright orientation.

Examination of the runway showed a series of propeller impact marks along the centerline of the runway.

Inspection of the wreckage revealed no anomalies with the airframe, flight controls, or engine. The propeller blades exhibited leading edge gouges and scratching in the plane of rotation.

The pilot had a total time of 15.1 hours, of which 14.6 hours were dual instruction and .5 hours were pilot-in-command. The accident flight was the pilot's third solo flight. The pilot had logged two dual instructional flights and two solo flights within the previous week. The two dual instructional flights were 0.3 hours and 0.2 hours in duration, and the two solo flights were also 0.3 and 0.2 hours in duration.