Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Commercial
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 45; Flight Crew Total 665; Flight Crew Type 260
Training / Qualification; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Object; Ground Excursion Runway; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control; Inflight Event / Encounter Object
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control
Human Factors
While practicing soft field takeoff in a Cessna 172; primary student with close to 150 hours of flight training for unknown reasons pitched the nose of the airplane up harshly and from what it seemed banked to the left as he increased the pitch while not having enough rudder in for that amount of pitch. [I]; being [the] CFI at the time of this event; grabbed the controls of the aircraft and immediately pitched the nose down. By that time; we were to the left of the center line and close to the edge of the 40 foot wide runway. Because of timing my immediate concentration was devoted to getting the pitch down and I could not bank and get us back on the center line that close and slow to the ground. After I recovered we proceeded with normal climb and pattern. We went around on the first approach and touched down on the second one. The student used aerodynamic braking at first and when we needed to use foot brakes to make sure the aircraft stopped in adequate distance; the airplane [swung] to the right; I grabbed the controls trying to get it back on center but it seemed like our left brake did not work and rudder was not too effective on the 40 foot wide runway. The airplane then skidded off into the grass and I maintained control until we stopped in a small bush with branches less than 1/8-1/4 [inch in] diameter. The mixture was pulled seconds prior to impact. There were no injuries or even scratches on the plane; it was all intact and only first 12 inches of the nose went into the bush. It turned out after the event; and after reviewing airport recordings; that while recovering from high pitch attitude which happened in split seconds; left main gear of the aircraft struck high standing airport runway light which [damaged] our brake.
C172 instructor pilot reported his student applied excessive pitch on a practice soft field takeoff and lost directional control; hitting a runway light and damaging a brake in the process. The subsequent landing proved difficult to control with the brake damage and the aircraft departed the runway.