Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Commercial
Training / Qualification
Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control; Ground Excursion Runway; Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter
General None Reported / Taken
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors
Student went on a solo cross country. Student claims that his approach speed was 65 kts. He did a normal landing and after touchdown the aircraft drifted off the centerline to the left. Student does not remember if the longitudinal axis of the airplane was parallel to the runway. And he is not sure what caused the aircraft to drift off the runway. Student says that he was scared to use right rudder as it would have toppled the airplane. The tower also asked the student to use caution for wake turbulence from departing traffic on [a parallel] runway.
C172 instructor pilot reported his student experienced a runway excursion during landing roll that may have been related to a wake turbulence encounter.