Another crash at Langley airport CYNJ

[boeingboy]

There was a second crash at Langley airport (CYNJ) the other day. A Cessna 172 from Langley flying school just missed the west side hangers while landing on 19. I saw this one happen. The pilot bounced it 3 times before stalling it. She planted it on the numbers of runway 19 and bounced it. She landed again and bounced it a second time hard. I thought for sure she would go around.....but hey - lets try to land it again in the last third of the runway. It bounced a third time and started to drift right. Ailerons cranked right over and the plane rolled over. It hit the ground about 90 degrees to the runway and then spun the other 90 when it hit the ditch. This pilot was so lucky.


I hate to say it - but it's only a matter of time before some student kills themselves at this airport. I spend a lot of time out there at my own hanger and I watch the planes come and go. The quality of the flight instruction has gone way down and it shows. This is just one example.

[pelmet]

Having flown at a whole lot of different flight schools over the past several years on various layovers, most of them had something in common, students crashing/damaging airplanes.

It was amazing how many significant incidents there were. And seeing as I was an infrequent visitor to many of them, I suspect that there were some I wasn’t aware of(I base this on the fact that more than once I would ask what’s new/or happened in the last few months, be told nothing and subsequently find out about a damaged aircraft).

Langley Flying School is one of the places I have flown at. I don’t know anything about this incident or their training program but having some metal bent just makes them similar to most of the other schools.....students(and sometimes others) damaging aircraft.

My personal experience with two different instructors was at least average overall.

[AirFrame]

Small world. The red motorcycle in the photo is right in front of my dad's hangar (not his motorcycle though, a friend was visiting). They weren't watching when it happened, but they heard it and I think they were some of the first people out to help.

[pelmet]

"C-GHEY, a Cessna 172P aircraft operated by Langley Flying School, was conducting a solo
training flight from Langley Regional (CYNJ), BC to practice normal and short field takeoffs and
landings with only the student-pilot on board. After a successful stop and go on Runway 01, the
student-pilot backtracked the runway in order to perform a soft field takeoff. During the attempt, the
aircraft veered left into the grassy knoll abeam Hangar 33, bounced over the berm, and came to
rest in a ditch. Soft field takeoffs had not been dual checked by the instructor, nor approved. There
had been an apparent miscommunication between the instructor and the student-pilot. The
student-pilot was not injured, however the aircraft was substantially damaged. A fuel leak at the
side of the runway prevented the use of that portion of the airport for approximately an hour."


Similar happened at a flying club a couple of years ago where I rent. Soft field attempt, ended up well off the side of the runway. I suspect that the aircraft gets airborne stalled and the controls are not released with the aircraft remaining stalled and moving leterally from the centerline.


Take a look....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTnW2TXOacY

[PilotDAR]

Langley 19 has a challenging sight picture, as it appears tight, and with nowhere to go if you over run. I can see how it would psyc a student pilot out - so, student pilots should be trained to recognize this effect, and fly without being distracted by what is beyond the runway - 'cause you're not going to take the plane there!

You can't entirely blame the student for this, the person was probably making the best of the training they had received...

[pelmet]

Langley 19 has a challenging sight picture, as it appears tight, and with nowhere to go if you over run. I can see how it would psyc a student pilot out - so, student pilots should be trained to recognize this effect, and fly without being distracted by what is beyond the runway - 'cause you're not going to take the plane there!

You can't entirely blame the student for this, the person was probably making the best of the training they had received...

Runway 19 does have trees in view across the highway, but I believe that this was departing runway 01 with a practice soft field takeoff, which it sounds like had never been practiced before.

Perhaps, emphasis should be.....at your experience level, don’t try anything significantly new unless absolutely required.

[lhalliday]

I learned to fly at Langley (LFS, back when Dave Parry ran it). The runways are indeed tiny, but with correct instruction they're fine. The school was adamant that if you weren't on the ground by the 1000 foot marker you had to go around. No excuses, no ifs ands or buts. Just do it. Now. You learn precise speed control very early on and get used to flying ILS-accurate glide slopes.

When I was shopping for an airplane I looked at HEY. A 172P with (among other things) a 430 GPS. But it hadn't flown in over a year, out of annual, tired engine (2600-ish SMOH). They wanted way too much for it...

...laura