What happened
On 7 May 2015, a Eurostar aircraft, registration G-CHJG, was performing a solo training flight at Bagby Airfield in North Yorkshire. The student pilot was conducting a landing on the grass runway 06. While the initial approach and touchdown appeared to be standard, the aircraft encountered an undulation in the runway surface during the rollout, which caused the aircraft to bounce approximately six inches off the ground.
In response to the bounce, the student applied forward stick input. This caused the aircraft to touch down on the nosewheel first before bouncing back into the air once more. Although an instructor observing from the ground radioed instructions to the student to apply aft stick to correct the attitude, the student instead pushed the stick forward again. This resulted in a heavy landing on the nosewheel, leading to the collapse of the nose gear and causing the propeller to strike the ground.
The investigation
Investigators reviewed the aircraft accident report submitted by the pilot. The examination focused on the sequence of events during the landing phase and the pilot's control inputs following the encounter with the uneven runway surface. The investigation confirmed that the aircraft sustained damage to the propeller, the nose gear, and minor damage to the firewall, but no injuries were sustained by the pilot.