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This is a classic case, it would seem, of a pilot letting the aircraft get ahead of him. It happened to me in my early days of training but I was fortunate to have my instructor with me at the time.

one of the most difficult instincts for a new pilot to overcome is to not pull back on the yolk when the power fails and you begin to lose altitude. I will always remember how I felt when my instructor reached over and reduced the power to almost nothing and said "you've lost your engine, what are you gonna do now?" I knew what to do as far as the book went but it was very difficult to see the big fan in front of me barely spinning and know I had to put the nose DOWN and aim for the deck to gain speed and control when everything in me said pull back to avoid the ground.

Thank goodness for hard nosed instructors (young and old).

It's an unforgiving business.

When I got my fixed wing license I already had about 2000 hours of rotary wing time. With about 200 hours of FW under my belt, I took three family members for a ride in, I believe a C-172 (been a long time ago). For some reason I had it in my head that I could make smoother landings if I didn't use full flaps. The runway was long enough but I was hot and a little long. I got it stopped just before I went into the over run which was a cornfield. As I taxied back I tried to act like I meant to do that. My siblings knew better. They remind me to this day.