Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Student
Flight Crew Total 35
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control; Ground Excursion Runway
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; General Maintenance Action
Procedure; Aircraft; Human Factors
I was on my first solo cross-country after receiving my endorsement from my CFI. The actual cross-country went very well and I made it safely from my home airport to ZZZ. I made a successful landing are receiving clearance from Tower and once on the ground I was instructed to back taxi on runway XX to depart again and do one lap in the traffic pattern before I headed back to my home airport to finish my solo cross-country. I was lined up and received clearance to depart runway XX; the ATIS if I remember correctly was winds from 130 at 5 kts so little to none crosswind component on this takeoff. I was performing a normal takeoff and I noticed my aircraft had trouble staying on the centerline; wanting to veer left; up to the point where I was using full right rudder. I got up to about 20 kts groundspeed before the aircraft took a fairly sharp turn to the left and was on course to go off the runway into the grass. I immediately pulled throttle idle and tried to stop but I knew I wasn't going to stop on time and I didn't want to make a sharp hard right turn with my brakes because of the risk of flipping the aircraft so I opted to just let it ride out in the grass right off the runway XX. I immediately notified Tower and told them 'I went off the runway into the grass. I think I have a flat tire;' and he responded to stay put; shut down the aircraft and he'll send some of the FBO guys to come out and help me and I complied. There was no damage to me or the aircraft during this time. I then called my CFI and told him exactly what happened and told me to stay put and have maintenance check it out and that I did the right thing for owning up to what happened. The aircraft was then inspected and nothing was visibly wrong with it and so my CFI picked me up that day and then the A&P's from my flight school came and picked it up the next day. For precautionary measures; the flight school had me do a training flight with my CFI of just takeoffs and landings and that went satisfactorily and I'm being double-checked by a check instructor at my flight school to ensure I'm a safe pilot.
Student pilot reported a runway excursion.