Incident Overview
A student pilot, on his first solo cross-country flight, was returning to his home airport. The wind sock at the airport initially favored runway 23 with a slight crosswind. The pilot entered the traffic pattern and lined up on final approach to the turf runway, but encountered a large wind gust and aborted the landing. After rejoining the traffic pattern, the wind sock still favored runway 23, so he set up for another landing. This time, a larger wind gust prompted a second abort.
Subsequent Landing Attempt
The pilot entered the traffic pattern again and noticed the wind sock now indicated a slight crosswind favoring runway 5. He flew around the pattern and set up for landing on runway 5. On final approach, the airspeed was described as "good," and he touched down. The airplane then bounced. The pilot attempted to recover the landing, but the nose landing gear dug into the ground. The airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted, resulting in substantial damage to the empennage and vertical stabilizer.
Weather Conditions and Instructor Interaction
Archived weather information revealed that around the time of the accident, the wind was 330 degrees at 11 knots, gusting to 16 knots. Wind gusts were present for nearly 4 hours prior to the accident and continued for about 4 hours after. Before the flight, the student pilot met the instructor at the instructor's place of business with his flight plan. The instructor spoke with the student pilot but did not look at the weather reports, and they "did not call in to check the weather."
Logbook Endorsement
Review of the student pilot's logbook revealed that it contained an endorsement from the flight instructor stating that he had reviewed the student's cross-country planning and preparation and found it to be correct and adequate for the flight. The endorsement also contained the caveat that the weather should be "clear," and crosswinds should not exceed 7 knots.