Incident Summary
During a cross-country flight, the pilot experienced the failure of the attitude indicator and directional gyro. Believing the vacuum pump had malfunctioned, the pilot elected to perform a precautionary landing. The landing was hard, causing the nose landing gear to detach from the aircraft. The aircraft also sustained damage to the firewall and the outboard 2 feet of the right wing. The pilot did not report any injuries.
Aircraft Damage
The hard landing resulted in the separation of the nose landing gear from the airplane. In addition, the firewall was damaged, and the outboard 2 feet of the right wing were compromised. The extent of damage to other components was not specified.
Weather Conditions
At the time of the event, the wind was recorded as 220 degrees at 21 knots, gusting to 28 knots. No other weather information was provided.