Narrative:

I was returning from a nearby airport and practice area to my home base. [I] called approach and was told to report a local visual point. Just short of the point I was switched to tower and told to report the farm and expect runway xxl. Just short of the farm I was asked if I had traffic ahead in sight. I said I did. I was told to follow traffic on downwind for xxl. We then extended on downwind very far and way past normal due to a lot of traffic. Once I was next and able to turn base I was instructed by tower to fly east and report power plant and to expect a change to [runway] yyl. I complied and flew east. I did not initially see the power plant so I continued on an east heading. Near the power plant area I was told to turn north for base to yyl and cleared to land number one. We were getting bounced pretty good by the clouds above and with drizzle on the windshield. Approaching final for yyl on what had become a very long base; I realized I was high and reduced power for my turn to final. I also put in 10 degrees of flaps but once on final the crosswind from the right was pretty strong so I decided to take them out and land flaps zero. I wondered why we weren't landing xxl if the wind was so strong from the right now on yyl. I continued the approach and saw my airspeed was higher than recommended for a zero flap landing. I should have gone around at that point as I was approaching short final. I continued however and I flared over center line well; however I floated in my flare very far due to my extra energy from the extra airspeed. I should have gone around at this point as well. I continued the approach and touched down softly and began to apply brakes and saw the end of the runway approaching quickly; I should have gone around here as well once I felt the forces on the brakes and the remaining runway I had left. I was nearly stopped by the end of the runway however I was not and I turned to the right off centerline to try to make the taxiway. Once I saw this was not going to happen I continued in between the runway end lights and the first taxiway light into the grass approximately 10 ft and then added power back in to taxi back onto the taxiway. I did not have damage to any property; equipment; or personnel. I contacted ground and they instructed me to shut down there and had fire/rescue drive out and meet up there. The school sent one of the tugs to tug the plane back to maintenance. A contributing factor I feel was a slight reluctance to perform a go-around due to the high workload I was feeling with the very modified traffic pattern; the bumpy and drizzly flight conditions; and also the high workload for the controller at the time. The controller was changing 4-5 planes behind me from xxl to yyl and was instructing them on traffic to follow and turns to be made. The controller was working hard and fast to change us all to yyl and I feel at the time I felt a general feeling to get it on the ground and out of all the traffic mess and avoid having to spot and avoid all of them again if I performed a go around. I should have done the go-around anyway. I feel I had a minimum of three good opportunities to abort the approach and go-around however I did not. Contributing factors would be the low clouds and drizzle; the bumpy flight conditions; the very modified traffic pattern; the high radio workload experienced; the strong right crosswind experienced on final for yyl.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C-172 instructor had three opportunities to go-around during an unstabilized approached but did not; so after landing with excess airspeed his aircraft ran off the end of the runway but did no damage.

Narrative: I was returning from a nearby airport and practice area to my home base. [I] called Approach and was told to report a local visual point. Just short of the point I was switched to Tower and told to report the farm and expect Runway XXL. Just short of the farm I was asked if I had traffic ahead in sight. I said I did. I was told to follow traffic on downwind for XXL. We then extended on downwind very far and way past normal due to a lot of traffic. Once I was next and able to turn base I was instructed by Tower to fly east and report power plant and to expect a change to [Runway] YYL. I complied and flew east. I did not initially see the power plant so I continued on an east heading. Near the power plant area I was told to turn north for base to YYL and cleared to land number one. We were getting bounced pretty good by the clouds above and with drizzle on the windshield. Approaching final for YYL on what had become a very long base; I realized I was high and reduced power for my turn to final. I also put in 10 degrees of flaps but once on final the crosswind from the right was pretty strong so I decided to take them out and land flaps zero. I wondered why we weren't landing XXL if the wind was so strong from the right now on YYL. I continued the approach and saw my airspeed was higher than recommended for a zero flap landing. I should have gone around at that point as I was approaching short final. I continued however and I flared over center line well; however I floated in my flare very far due to my extra energy from the extra airspeed. I should have gone around at this point as well. I continued the approach and touched down softly and began to apply brakes and saw the end of the runway approaching quickly; I should have gone around here as well once I felt the forces on the brakes and the remaining runway I had left. I was nearly stopped by the end of the runway however I was not and I turned to the right off centerline to try to make the taxiway. Once I saw this was not going to happen I continued in between the runway end lights and the first taxiway light into the grass approximately 10 FT and then added power back in to taxi back onto the taxiway. I did not have damage to any property; equipment; or personnel. I contacted Ground and they instructed me to shut down there and had Fire/Rescue drive out and meet up there. The school sent one of the tugs to tug the plane back to Maintenance. A contributing factor I feel was a slight reluctance to perform a go-around due to the high workload I was feeling with the very modified traffic pattern; the bumpy and drizzly flight conditions; and also the high workload for the Controller at the time. The Controller was changing 4-5 planes behind me from XXL to YYL and was instructing them on traffic to follow and turns to be made. The Controller was working hard and fast to change us all to YYL and I feel at the time I felt a general feeling to get it on the ground and out of all the traffic mess and avoid having to spot and avoid all of them again if I performed a go around. I should have done the go-around anyway. I feel I had a minimum of three good opportunities to abort the approach and go-around however I did not. Contributing factors would be the low clouds and drizzle; the bumpy flight conditions; the very modified traffic pattern; the high radio workload experienced; the strong right crosswind experienced on final for YYL.

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.