C172 student pilot loses control of the aircraft after landing; damaging a runway edge light.

Attributes
ACN	826344
Time
Date	200903
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	SEE.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Instructor
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Commercial
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 120 Flight Crew Total 1300 Flight Crew Type 1000
Person 2
Function	Trainee Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Student
Events
Anomaly	Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control Ground Excursion Runway Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter

Narrative:

My student was doing his last solo review flight before his private pilot check ride. After touching down on runway; he lost control of the aircraft for no apparent reason and started skidding to the left. He regained control of the aircraft as he was about to go off the runway and damaged a runway edge light with the aircraft's left landing gear. The aircraft was undamaged and could be taken back in to operation after inspection. The student has never before had any problems with directional control on the runway and when trying to reproduce the scenario in a dual flight afterwards he had no problem dealing with the situation. The student brought up the fact that a helicopter crossed his runway shortly before the accident and was wondering if that could have caused the loss of control. None of the instructors regularly flying on the airfield have experienced any serious effects from the overflying helicopter's rotor wash; so we find this reason rather unlikely.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C172 student pilot loses control of the aircraft after landing; damaging a runway edge light.

Narrative: My student was doing his last solo review flight before his private pilot check ride. After touching down on runway; he lost control of the aircraft for no apparent reason and started skidding to the left. He regained control of the aircraft as he was about to go off the runway and damaged a runway edge light with the aircraft's left landing gear. The aircraft was undamaged and could be taken back in to operation after inspection. The student has never before had any problems with directional control on the runway and when trying to reproduce the scenario in a dual flight afterwards he had no problem dealing with the situation. The student brought up the fact that a helicopter crossed his runway shortly before the accident and was wondering if that could have caused the loss of control. None of the instructors regularly flying on the airfield have experienced any serious effects from the overflying helicopter's rotor wash; so we find this reason rather unlikely.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.