Incident Overview
A student pilot, on his first supervised solo flight, experienced a hard landing that was followed by five or six porpoise-like bounces on the runway. Subsequently, he lost control of the airplane, and it collided with a runway sign.
Flight Instructor's Account
The student pilot's flight instructor reported that her student had performed what appeared to have been a normal approach to the runway, using 30 degrees of wing flaps. However, the student appeared to flare out higher than normal over the runway. Just before the hard landing, he increased engine power in an attempt to recover.