Narrative:

The morning this incident occurred the weather was: unlimited ceiling; unlimited visibility; and surface winds were reported as 040 at 4 KTS. I was flying solo; as a student pilot; in the local traffic pattern. I had a stabilized approach and was on the extended center line into runway X. Shortly after I had touched down; without side load or bounce; and rolled for a few feet I heard a loud 'pop'. The wheels did not feel normal. I was able to control the airplane with the rudder when I had some airspeed; but as the airspeed bled off the airplane started veering to the left. I looked down and saw that the left main tire was flat and potentially falling off the wheel hub. I recall using right aileron and right brake only; with full right rudder deflection. I recall remembering to pull the yoke fully back in order to keep the propeller up in order to reduce the chance for a prop strike. The airplane and I came to rest mostly on runway; with the left main tire approximately a foot into the grass. The airplane stopped between the first and second exits on runway. I used the radio to call the CTAF to let the planes in the pattern know that I was disabled on the runway. I notified the other airplanes that they should not land at this time. Unicom arranged to have a tug pull my disabled aircraft off of the runway as they officially closed the runway to other traffic. After talking with unicom; it was decided that I would turn off the airplane's engine and stay on the radio until the tug approached the plane. I did so; notifying new aircraft entering the traffic pattern that there was a disabled airplane on the runway as appropriate. With the help of several additional pilots and the tug; we were able to remove the plane from the runway without additional problems. After inspection of the flat tire we did not find any flat spots or holes in the outer tire. It appears as if only the inner tube failed during the landing. The plane; propeller; and left wheel hub did not receive any damage due to this incident.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A solo student pilot reported that after landing his C172 he saw the left tire was flat and causing him to veer off the runway without damaging any parts of the aircraft.

Narrative: The morning this incident occurred the weather was: Unlimited ceiling; unlimited visibility; and surface winds were reported as 040 at 4 KTS. I was flying solo; as a student pilot; in the local traffic pattern. I had a stabilized approach and was on the extended center line into Runway X. Shortly after I had touched down; without side load or bounce; and rolled for a few feet I heard a loud 'pop'. The wheels did not feel normal. I was able to control the airplane with the rudder when I had some airspeed; but as the airspeed bled off the airplane started veering to the left. I looked down and saw that the left main tire was flat and potentially falling off the wheel hub. I recall using right aileron and right brake only; with full right rudder deflection. I recall remembering to pull the yoke fully back in order to keep the propeller up in order to reduce the chance for a prop strike. The airplane and I came to rest mostly on Runway; with the left main tire approximately a foot into the grass. The airplane stopped between the first and second exits on Runway. I used the radio to call the CTAF to let the planes in the pattern know that I was disabled on the Runway. I notified the other airplanes that they should not land at this time. UNICOM arranged to have a tug pull my disabled aircraft off of the runway as they officially closed the Runway to other traffic. After talking with UNICOM; it was decided that I would turn off the airplane's engine and stay on the radio until the tug approached the plane. I did so; notifying new aircraft entering the traffic pattern that there was a disabled airplane on the runway as appropriate. With the help of several additional pilots and the tug; we were able to remove the plane from the Runway without additional problems. After inspection of the flat tire we did not find any flat spots or holes in the outer tire. It appears as if only the inner tube failed during the landing. The plane; propeller; and left wheel hub did not receive any damage due to this incident.

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.