What happened
On 22 July 2011, an Aquila AT01, registration G-GAEB, was involved in a landing accident at Blackpool Airport, Lancashire. The aircraft was conducting a private flight with one pilot and one passenger on board. During the landing sequence, the aircraft experienced two consecutive bounces. This sequence of events resulted in damage to the aircraft's nose gear. There were no injuries to the crew or the passenger.
The investigation
The investigation was based on the aircraft accident report submitted by the pilot. The pilot noted that during the final approach, she had failed to set the propeller pitch to fine and had neglected to select the carburettor heat to the off position. These omissions contributed to a difficult recovery following the initial bounce.
Further examination of the pilot's experience revealed that she had relatively low flight hours on this specific aircraft type, with only 6 hours previously completed on the Aquila AT01. Additionally, the pilot had recently completed training on a different aircraft model, a Diamond Twinstar, the previous month. The pilot identified both her limited experience on the type and the specific configuration errors during the approach as contributing factors to the accident.