What happened
On 4 July 2017, a Cessna 152, registration G-WACF, was conducting a training flight at Wycombe Air Park, Buckinghamshire. The flight was the student pilot's third solo mission, occurring immediately after a successful dual session with an instructor. While the instructor monitored the flight from a nearby position, the student approached Runway 24 under good weather conditions with a light left crosswind.
During the final stages of the approach, at roughly 100 feet above the airfield, the pilot began making frequent pitch corrections while attempting to manage the aircraft's airspeed. The main wheels touched the asphalt, but the aircraft subsequently bounced to a height of approximately 15 feet in a nose-up attitude. Following this bounce, the nose dropped, causing the aircraft to land nosewheel-first. This resulted in a porpoising motion along the runway. The pilot applied the brakes and brought the aircraft to a halt, resulting in no injuries to the crew.
The investigation
The AAIB examined the sequence of the landing and the pilot's actions following the bounce. The investigation established that the student pilot had pulled the control column back after the initial bounce but failed to increase engine power. The investigation also noted that the aircraft sustained damage to the propeller, the engine mounting, and the nose landing gear.