I'm super-impressed by that flight instructor. If you're out there and reading this perhaps, just know I think you're a great guy. You, of course, did nothing wrong, and your concern and empathy for the student shows where your heart is. If every student in any discipline should be so fortunate to have instructors such as you, we'd have a much better world.
After all these years and just now seeing the video, I came here to say the same. The fact he didn’t want to show the video out of respect to the student, and spoke so highly of the student, really says everything about his character. I truly hope both the student and instructor went on to be very successful as pilots, in whatever path they desired. If the instructor ever happens to read this, sir I greatly appreciate your professionalism, maturity, and genuine concern for your students. Well done.
Sorry, but he's not NEARLY serious enough or strict enough to be an effective Flight Instructor, and his student (plus his plane) paid the price! That student obviously had some bad habits and holes in his knowledge that this CFI failed to correct! Student screwed up a routine go-around, was NOT heading into an obstacle, no rational reason to over-rotate and stall that close to the ground. Seems like Mr. Ostrander might be a good kindergarten teacher though.
@@MajorCaliber Are you a CFI? It's more than reasonable that this student showed all the necessary proficiency to get signed off for solo and just happened to make an awful mistake when he was cut loose. Your attitude about it strikes me as someone who thinks "it could never happen to me" but in actuality any of us can get complacent at any point and make a fatal mistake.
I have been an instructor, corporate , air ambulance, regional, and now major airline pilot. I can honestly say, being an instructor was the most stressful position in my entire career.
Same with being a driving instructor I guess. There are two (almost mutually exclusive??) skills required - to KNOW YOUR STUFF (driving), AND to be able to "TEACH". It's rare an individual has both. I was extremely fortunate, in my younger years I was trained to drive by the Australian Army, and lucky enough to have some of the BEST instructors in the Army. One aspect they teach I've NEVER seen elsewhere is constant assessment of VISIBLE DISTANCE (bend in the road / corners, crests or dips), STOPPING DISTANCE (which varies according to vehicle, load, road, gradient, conditions, and speed), and constant assessment of your speed such that you can STOP WITHIN the visible distance. - Rare to find someone that knows both everything they should AND the ability to transfer that knowledge well.
Right? We need these guys. I still remember my original CFI. He was self-admittedly just trying to get hours to apply to the airlines. I realized within about the first 10 minutes of my first lesson that I already knew more about flying than he did. I immediately withdrew and found a different flight school where I fortunately got a seasoned pilot very much like this guy.
I remember a friend tell me that when she soloed it was the most terrifying thing she'd ever done. Years later, when I was about to solo, I made sure that I felt comfortable enough so that it was fun and exciting, but not terrifying. If you're terrified, you're not ready. And for god's sake--airspeed, airspeed, airspeed.
I was a Glider instructor in Nevada where conditions allow students to soar, literally for hours. To make the longest duration flight was the point of every flight. Children 13 years old came to learn to soar and often they would take instruction and time it to fly there solo flight on or close to their 14th birthday when it was legal for them to do so. Some of my young students seemed like babies to me. I would make absolutely sure they were ready for solo and sometimes but not often their flights would last just a few minutes as a glide down from a tow to 3,000ft. But there were times these kids would release from the tow plane and fly for hours as I watched nervously from the ground. One student I'll never forget came with his father a month before his 14 birthday. His father a very successful doctor who owned many clinics told me in no un certain terms that his son will solo on his birthday a month away. Every day the young boy would come for his instruction flights. He'd arrive in a long limo with a driver equipped with a uniform, hat and everything. The boy was a brilliant student and although his father demanded he solo on his 14th birthday we told him the day of his solo was up to us, period. The kid was brilliant and I thanked God to have this type of student. The day of his birthday he arrived in the same limo with his mother to watch. I soloed him and he caught wonderful thermals and flew high and for over 3.9 hours. But after the first 45 minutes the limo driver was sent over to ask me to bring him down, his mother said he was up long enough. I told him he was safe and there was no way for me to tell him anything because the sailplane had no radio. After another 45 minutes the mother came over in a rage and demanded that I get him down. Again I told her I had no power or way to do that. She told me she would rent a plane and go up and signal him down. I told her he would just fly away from any air plane an you couldn't get near him and besides it was uncalled for and dangerous. She left to return 30 minutes later with a police man who told me to bring the child down. Again , I responded that I couldn't, there existed no emergency. The kid was fine and doing what sailplane pilots do......trying to keep it up as long as possible. The policeman again presented his authority and I countered with my authority as an FAA certified flight instructor I had every right to supervise this student and this flight. I tried to assure everyone that this was what soaring is all about and the boy was having the time of his life. The anger and resentment even from the policeman rose and rose. Every attempt they requested of me to get him down was countered with the fact the glider, sailplane pilot's whole point of every flight is to stay up in the lift as long as possible. Finally after hours of his mother freaking out the boy began his landing decent. Upon landing he was ripped out of the cockpit and to never be seen again. His mother in her outrage was screaming at him and the driver grabbed him out of the cockpit and off they went to never be seen again. The mother ruined what was going to be a fantastic time we had set up for when he did solo. What can you say to that? Soloing anyone is the most stressful time there is
Wow.. what a story...well told. One of those cases of "If you (the parents) can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen." I imagine they were told of the possibility of a long flight beforehand? That may have come as a surprise to them if not.
I often think of that student since it's been 35 years or so since it all happened. I wonder what affects such treatment by parents have on their children. You see even wealthy kids have their problems. I shouldn't worry though, he probably owns and flies his own business jet by now.
I was a flight instructor for many years back in the 90's. I taught about 130 people how to fly. I never got over the anxiety of watching them solo or sending them on a XC for the first time. We never had an incident or accident in all the thousands of hours of instruction at my flight school, but there were some very hairy moments. I hope this instructor got back in the saddle. He'll be a much better instructor for having gone through this. I'm thinking about getting my instructor license re-instated so I can teach again as a hobby/semi retired occupation.
Hello Sir. I know this post was a year ago. Did you return to CFI? Also, where are you based out of ? I'd be interested in speaking with you if you've returned. I have someone I think you would enjoy teaching, and would be your best student ever. Cheers!
I have been flying for more than 30 years, from instruction, to air ambulance, to corporate, cargo , regionals, majors. The most stressful by far, agreed: sending students up for solo, and x-country.
Have you ever had a student who you thought just isn't cut out to be a pilot for a number of reasons and should just be told not going to instruct them.
@blastman8888 - Yes, I had to break the bad news to one student when it became obvious that father time was not on our side and their memory was getting noticeably worse.
Don't give up flight instructing because a student of yours lost his situational awareness in the cockpit. I think the hardest things the CFI has to do is remember to teach the dangers of high aoa, low airspeed, stall/ spin base to final, and airspeed discipline. Loss of airspeed will kill you if you're trying to stretch out a glide as well. These basic things need to be hammered into the student from DAY 1!
CFIs have a tough job. Its hard to determine when a student is really ready. You want to push them to solo or they'll remain in a ready state for eaons, afraid to take that step. But yyou don't want them to take that step too early either. I remember having to calm my nerves as I closed the cockpit door and realized my CFI was not sitting next to me, ready to save my bacon if I did something stupid. If you're soloing or Xing soon, just remember to take a couple of deep breaths and drown out the noise in your head before you set yourself up for the task at hand. And take that step when you feel you're ready.
I saw your comment and see your point. This is my 5th week on the circuit. Rules are you need to get 5 hrs solo then you proceed with more training. Personally I am in no hurry to go solo unless I can prove to myself and my instructor to do the circuit perfectly and consistently with confidence no matter how long it takes. Aviation is no joke and this student is very lucky. I don't want to be the cause of a huge loss just because of my anxiousness to go solo...
If perfection is your goal, you're pursuing the wrong hobby or career. There's a lot of math to flying and as a finite science, it would seem perfection is possible but the vast majority of flying isn't "by-the-numbers" especially private pilot VFR... TLAR (That Looks About Right) is most often the name of the game.
My first solo, my instructor and I flew down to a Class-D airport and he had me taxi to the terminal. I thought we we're stopping to debrief or talk "tower controlled airspace" procedures but he hoped out and said "now go fly a 5 or 6 circuits and come pick me back up" Of course, I goofed almost immediately before the wheels of the plane left the ground... I started up, went through my checks and started to taxi and was on the taxiway on my way to the runup area without once talking to ground. I then contacted Tower, not ground. Pretty sure the tower was aware I was solo'ing for the first time as they were overly nice about it... just reminding me "to next time contact ground before taxi'ing and leaving the non-movement area" and approving me to continue taxi'ing to the runway for runup and closed-traffic pattern work It was my first experience with a controlled airport and I fault my instructor more for not reviewing ground procedures than the noise in my head. Though I had read about it and clearly forgot, it wasn't something I had done or practiced previously with my instructor so it was a new procedure and there's something to be said for reading it in a book and actually doing it. That being said, its a mistake I've never made again so it stuck with me.
My first solo came as a surprise at about 10 hours. We did some touch and goes and the instructor jumped out and said ok, off you go again on your own. Takeoff, do a circuit, land and come back to the aero club! We all knew the solo was coming up any time after 8 hours, but most students back then were just told when they were ready! There was an extra level of stress because we flew out of an international airport which allowed student pilots to use it along with the commercial jets. When it was busy the controllers would direct you to holding points until a gap opened up for landing, or extend your circuit, since jets got priority. I'm guessing they'd let the tower know in advance that a student was doing their first solo and they'd give the student more leeway than usual, because I didn't have to hold or extend. I remember thinking how empty that cockpit looked without the instructor, but after I took off, there was so much to do there was no time to panic! And it was something simple I'd been drilled on many times.
I know exactly what happened to the student. You practice take offs and landings over and over till you have all the feels down pat. But when the instructor gets out and the plane flies very differently without that 180 pounds. When he approached for the landing, the plane floats lots longer due to the reduced weight and doesn't sink as fast. Then when pulling out he experienced a power on stall that he wasn't ready for, and didn't recover from. Good he's OK.
He also probably had trimmed the plane for the landing, and then when he added full power to go around, induced a trim stall by forgetting to move the trim back.
@@philconey11 I don't understand what that means. You change your airspeed to get into short fields. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. That is what flaps or a forward slip is for.
@@bradschak a flatter approach with a higher AOA at Vmca will get you a much shorter and much more accurate landing. Understanding the limitations of your airplane and training at the edges of the performance envelope will help you develop the skills necessary to do operations like this. These approaches are necessary is places like Alaska, PNG, Peru, and many other places that don't have the improved strips that you're probably used to. When I land on a short field, it's usually 1,000-1300'. With a landing roll of 900' at Vref, that's not enough room for error. Thus, a flatter approach at Vmca is called for. This reduces the landing roll to 500' or less.
Typical local news. No pertinent information about the flight. No film footage, even though it exists. Finally reports at the end that the pilot survived.
Remember that day you got into IMC or minimum VFR by accident when you were a low time VFR pilot? That’s about what it feels like as an instructor when you solo a student.
@@komet5420 That actually is about normal before someone is relatively consistent in their landings. But that’s just the start 😉. I have nearly 5,000 landings logged and still mess up here and there. Not bad, but not all 10’s either.
When going on maybe my 3rd cross country, winds were a little more than were forecast at a landing. I didnt handle the cross wind well and actually went off the runway. Luckily I avoided lights and the terrain was smooth and i got back on the runway, taxi’d to the FBO shaking like a leaf. Thinking to myself I will NEVER get behind the yoke ever again. I was about 120 miles or so from my home field and was thinking i was going to have to call the CFI and explain that he was going to have to find a way to come get me and the airplane. I calmed down a bit, went into the FBO, figuring people would be staring at me and possibly even telling me to not to fly home. There were only a few people there and Nobody had even noticed. So i told myself to get a drink and settle down. After thinking it through, realizing that I had just learned from a mistake and walked away from it, I asked myself “am I competent enough to make the return trip?” The answer was yes if the weather was right. Forecast was for much calmer winds at my home base. So after about 20 minutes, right or wrong, I willed myself back into the aircraft and had an uneventful flight and landing back at the home base. I discussed what happened with the CFI and he said that i did the right thing by asking myself if I could handle it. He also added, lets work a little more on crosswind landings. Although I only flew about 200 hours after that, the only incident I had after that was a window coming open on take off. But thats another story.
Not just a pull up. Must maintain full control of aircraft. Must apply full power without letting nose rise up, achieve best angle speed, positive climb you start to retract flaps slowly without losing altitude and airspeed then attain best rate climb speed and retract rest of flaps. You can plan for such an event before you take off!
most likely the FAA asked for a copy but I can respect the decision to not publicly shame the student. Remember we live in a world on insensitive keyboard warriors that would take this "lesson" and use it to create hateful energy.
What would it tell you? That the airplane crashed, and the student yoked it out of the sky? C'mon. There's nothing for RU-vidrs to learn from this other than to listen to their CFI more and be patient about solo'ing.
The video wouldn't show us much... it's obvious as to what happened. He got too slow on the go-around and stalled. Maybe too much trim was put in for the landing or not enough forward pressure was put on the yoke.
I did about the same thing in a 150 with electric flaps . I did a touch and go and positioned the flap switch I thought and applied full power and the airplane leapt 50 feet off the ground in a blur and I looked and still had 40 degrees flaps so while starting to descend slightly I let it stabilize and started reducing flaps at minimum intervals to the point 20 ft off the ground I was able to slowly climb to normal v speeds . Didnt do that again. I like manual lever Flaps .He was startled.
I hope this instructor decides to continue teaching! His total dedication to safety and student wellbeing is above all! I believe flying has a stronger grip on a pilot than fear. That urge to fly and teach will undoubtedly course through his veins and he will return better than ever!👍🇨🇦
Truck driver here, with thoughts of getting a PPL. When you are in the afternoon and want to go east in the USA, you should not have the sun in your face. So not even a compass is required to know which way to go or that she was going the wrong direction.
Some are discouraged by an accident and never return to flying, but others say "I learned from this and next time I'll remember" and they go back and do well. This student can be respected for being in that second group.
Didn't you listen? They said the instructor let the reporter watch the video but he would NOT give them a copy of the video, to make sure that it DIDN'T end up on the news. He did not want other student pilots to see it. How about some respect for the injured pilot?
@@wraith0127 It's his right of course to decide how his privately-recorded video is used, but this has nothing to do with "respect" - these sorts of videos are good training tools to drive into students (and veteran pilots as well!) the importance of basic flight principles. You can't shield students from reality. If the student who was in that plane that crashed was eager to get back in the cockpit, why would those watching it be deterred unless they weren't passionate about flying?
If you're enduring the lengthy process of teaching a student takeoffs and landings and you don't include at least one go-around from various positions during every session, you're doing you and the student both a terrible disservice. And while you're at it, teach him what it's like to forget to raise the flaps after a landing or two. Slide his seat back unexpectedly upon rotation. Open his door suddenly on a climb out. Gotta teach 'em to stay focused or they'll learn the hard way...
I really like where your head is at. But how do you open a student’s door from the opposite side of the cabin in something like a 172 where you’re shoulder to shoulder?
@@VictoryAviationLong left arm? lol. You should be able to reach the left door latch from the right seat. Usually unlatching it and giving it a shove just after takeoff on a touch and go or right when a go-around is initiated would do the trick.
@@TheFlyingZulu Sorry, let me be more clear… How do you open your student’s door without it being painfully obvious when you’re sitting shoulder to shoulder due to the tight space? A move like that would be telegraphed easily.
@@VictoryAviationI dunno? Maybe on the go around you could slowly reach to the door and then tell your student to look out to the front right at something? Try to purposefully distract them while you unlatch the door? It could probably be done? If I become a CFI, I'll try it and report back on this very post one day maybe. lol.
Seems the student wasn't ready to solo if he is pulling too hard on a go around in a 172 it's not rocket science keep it at 60 knots not really that difficult. I know some people who can't back up a trailer or get lost in the city they lived in for 30 years. I think CFI's need to just tell some people they need to keep their feet on the ground.
And yet, pilots with thousands of hours make similar mistakes all the time. Even CFI's can and have made the mistake. The whole point of the process up to and through solo'ing a student is not to have a perfect pilot but to get them to the point where they will hopefully not get themselves killed but can go up and make mistakes and learn from them themselves and develop the judgement necessary to become a good pilot. The pilot in this case made a mistake, he came in too fast. He recognized it, and attempted to pull up and go around. Unfortunately, the pilot made another error and pulled up too aggressively causing an aggressive stall at low altitude that could not be recovered. It was a compounding mistake but not an uncommon one.
Then after they get through flight training they load up their family or friends and go out there to see what they can learn about flying in a heavy aircraft, everyone got life insurance?@@apromero911
As a pilot myself, id guess that the stident pilot forgot to adjust trim, its a very common thing. Going in for landing your trim helps keep the nose up, when you add power for the go around it forcibly forces the nose up. With the trim set high like that it becones extreemly hard to push nose down. Causes a stall and youre done. Such a simple thing but causes catastrophic failure. 9ne tging i hate in aviation training is alnost all cfi's teach to add full power at once to do a go around. This is such a horrible thing to teach. Unless you need gull power immediately never add full power instantly, a gradual full power is way safer and allows the pilot to safely fly the plane out of the situation. Immediate full powrr gives the pilot almost no reaction time to fix a trim setting before its too late, especially on a new pilot. Glad he survived. I remember my first solo, scared as F but nade it
probably full flaps AND he was trimmed for landing. It takes a lot of forward force on the yoke to overcome the nose up tendencies that these two factors induce during a go-around. You need to hold that yoke forward while smoothly adding full power. And it takes a surprising amount of forward force on that yoke to control the climb-out as you increase power, reduce flaps and reduce the trim. (a very surprising amount of force if you are not familiar and well-practiced in this critical procedure) That can easily cause an excessively steep climbout resulting in a full power-on stall, if you aren't familiar with all of the proper steps of a go-around, especially while in full landing configuration. He probably wasn't drilled on this enough. Glad he lived to learn the lesson.
1:53 the flight instructor looks like Pete Carroll when the Seahawks should’ve ran the ball against the patriots, except this time you can tell he has more emotion in his eyes over his student
Keep in mind the timing of when the story aired. The crash had just occurred within a few days. They probably used the video as a training tool later for other students. The instructor didn’t show everyone at that time out of respect for the student’s privacy.
I told my flight instructor I didn’t know how he could take it watching students (like me) soloing aircraft! And believe me, your instructor will be as excited and happy for you soling as you are. No instructor will ever let you solo unless he has 100% faith in you and your piloting skill.
As a pilot I can say that this guy obviously doesn't need to fly. They are not released to solo until they have demonstrated repeated stabilized approaches. This guy panicked and failed to realize he was high on his approach and waited too late to abort the landing. Flying is about judgement, and this guy has shown he lacks it. He is lucky to be alive.
Amazing how you can just know that the guy "panicked" and failed to "realize" this or that. Amazing mind-reading skills you have there! He was a _student_ pilot. There's a reason he didn't have a private pilots license yet. Obviously poor decisions were made, but you have no idea what was going through his head and what led him to make those decisions.
The flight instructor needs to continue providing his instruction, this is not his fault, but he has learned now how to crystalize his instructions on aborted landings, emergency maneuvering etc. This was not a failure, it was simply a wake up call. I am very impressed with his candor and humility. Something lacking in many aviators in this day and time.
Yes --- this. Every student has things they can do better, and things they do very well. Often, it's a reflection of what's emphasized in training. When I was a student, go-arounds - especially late in the landing process - didn't see a lot of focus. I'm sure this instructor will lead the way in making sure students are comfortable making the go-around decision, and executing it properly. I was blessed to have a couple of different instructors. My favorite was an older gentleman who taught for the love of it. He wasn't some young instructor who was teaching to build hours for the next step in their career.
Every day now these private planes are falling out of the sky everywhere. Needs to stop now you are endangering people on the ground who could care less about you trying to fly. Remember you are falling not flying
Show the video!!! Don't just show reactions. This channel is a prime example of why the number of thumbs down ratings should be viable again, but no cnn and fox cried about how bad their videos are and now we waste time clicking on garbage like this.
Seems to be inadequate flight instructions I can only imagine my flight instructor in 1968 when I took off at Queen City Airport downtown PA to the West around me 25 into a small thunderstorm I climbed out with the starlight making noise flickering on and off turned around came around in the same runway later full crosswind and I had a crab hard crab and then a little bit of slip but I got down okay I wonder what he was thinking. My flight instructor went on to become Air Canada pilot on a 707 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Montreal via Toronto is playing caught on fire in the bathroom and he got down into Cincinnati Kentucky I believe and about half of the passengers died half got out and he was pulled out unconscious by the firefighters from your pile window you then went on and lived a nice long life saved a lot of people's lives in a bad situation
The 172 will fly fine with full flaps and full power on a go-around. Standard procedure is to relieve flaps slowly once a constant speed climb is achieved, but you don't have to. Not sure what you're on about.
Actually my brothers friend took his family on a flight from Edmonton to Calgary after getting his license to learn in a Cessna 172 and he attempted a go around flaps down full power it would not climb he must have kinda froze cruised past the runway 5 feet in the air past the fence started making contact with those big round hay bails. That flight was his last. The newer 172 has flaps that only go down 30 deg. maybe they climb better with full flaps? @@danpolk
watadeeel that was not a spoiler its called FLAPS the Cessna 172 dose not have spoilers and the flaps had nothing to do with the crash he pulled too far back on the yoke
I would think that instructors would have their students practice go arounds. It is bound to happen eventually, it was obviously this student's first time and he climbed too steep.
Considering the student didn't die, the instructor is a bit over the top drama queen about it honestly. I'd be happy as hell, that my student made it out alive... that is of course unless the instructor is merely worried more about his plane he lost, than the student pilot. Honestly though, I'd be upset, but I'd instantly be happy that my student made it out alive and let insurance take over. Trainer planes like this are cheap in the big picture. I'd simply write it off, be happy, show the video, unless it was embarrassing because he started bawling on film. The whole quiet sobbing thing was quite strange,.... The student walked away from it. I mean, that's huge and the guy should be clickin his heels together in joy over the student living, walking away, and living to tell about it. My dad was in a very serious, almost fatal car accident right before Christmas this year. He walked away from it, even though he got hit by a massive semi truck, 3 other cars, and even the highway patrol said he shouldn't have lived.. His car was nothing but a small ball of metal. We are a close famliy, very close. My dad made it out. I actually did get upset about it, as anyone would, but I was literally on top of the world for months that my poor pops, who raised me, who is basically my best friend in the world besides my wife, made it out alive. Crying because a student wrecked your plane, but lived, and crying on camera about it, and refusing to show the video, is just seriously drama queen BS. This guy shouldn't be an instructor.. perhaps working at a shelter for snowflakes. Crying when your student walks away is kinda crazy.
Lol Mallisa , thank god. I thought I was going to get crucified by youtube trolls because of flat out stating my comments here. But seriously, the guy starts getting choked up like the guy died. If the info didn't say he walked away, you'd think his student was killed. I only watched this video again after someone commented about a reply I made long ago. He just seems to be a snowflake drama queen.
Poppa Bear unfortunately as a flight instructor you are responsible for everything that pilot will do, that day and every flight there after. After an incident like this I think I would have had a more dramatic response. A responsible CFI, certified flight instructor, main job is the safety of their student. Prior to solo you have spent about 20 hours instructing this student in the air and about 20 more hours on the ground. You build a personal relationship and you have great satisfaction with student overcoming learning blocks under your hand. Not that money had anything to do with it, but those training aircraft cam be as little as 40k to over 200k. They are not cheap. Flight instructors make approximately 500 dollars a week. If the instructor in the plane owned that plane and it was his business, he is now effectively pout of a job and unusually the business will close. Insurance will not cover the losses. Most flight schools can not afford adequate insurance other than liability. I soleloed hundreds of students and each and every one of them I stood out on the ramp.. nervously watching the wind sock, the other traffic in the pattern and my student.. there you are questioning yourself, did I show them this, did they understand this, don't porpoise, don't forget to put the flaps up, keep the crab in.. don't cut off the airbus on short final.... TUMS.. .. pepto.. tums.. rinse and repeat. I had one student who had an alternator failure on a solo x country. Super bright student, but made some poor decisions as he was nervous. He wound up flying into the arrivals of a busy class b airport and caused some airline traffic to divert. All in all he was ok and landed safely but for months after I questioned myself.. what did I do wrong that my student didn't do the right thing. Being a CFI is one of the best job in the world, but get me the tums.
I'm sure the instructor did have a radio, but many case studies have proven it's better to keep the radio silent so the student can revert and rely on their training. Unfortunately we can not predict what our students will do when they are on their own. 99.9% of the time they do exactly what they have demonstrated many times prior and you are confident they have developed excellent habit patterns to deal with stress. Two things about the Cessna... the trim may have been fairly nose up during approach.. when full power is applied the the control forces to maintain correct attitude will be fairly heavy, approximately 30lbs. Secondly, Cessnas have been prone to the seat track giving away during climb out. Thus, the seat moves back rapidly during nose up attitude. The pilot naturally holding the yoke causes a sudden full aft deflection. This is a known issue with Cessnas and their is an FAA airworthiness directive for continuous inspection of the seat track. Unfortunately this defect has proven to be quite deadly. Once the investigation is complete we can all learn the lessons of this accident. I'm grateful the student pilot is ok as we usually learn lessons paid in blood in aviation.
I'm not a pilot, but I play one on TV. This was clearly a case of a bad flux capacitor. They are supposed to be checked yearly. I would like to see the maintenance records on his.
