Introduction
On 30 August 2001 at 1416 hours UTC, a Jabiru UL aircraft, registration G-MGCA, sustained damage during a training flight at Redhill Aerodrome, Surrey. The aircraft was being used for type conversion training for a pilot qualified on other microlight types but unfamiliar with the Jabiru.
Event Sequence
The flight instructor reported that during dual circuit training, the pilot under instruction touched down and over-reacted with a pitch control input. The aircraft bounced, and the pilot then pushed the stick forward. On the subsequent landing, the nose leg collapsed. The instructor considered that the leg had been weakened during the bounced landing, which developed as a result of his late intervention on the controls.
Aircraft and Personnel Information
The aircraft was a 1999 Jabiru UL with a single Jabiru Aircraft Pty 2200A piston engine. There were two persons on board: the 48-year-old flying instructor and the pilot under instruction. The instructor held a Private Pilot's Licence and had 2,700 hours of flying experience, of which 2,500 were on type. No injuries were reported. The aircraft sustained a collapsed nosewheel and a damaged propeller.
Previous Incidents
G-MGCA had been involved in a number of previous accidents reported by the AAIB. A study of these incidents did not indicate a common factor other than two instances of landing gear damage—one to the nose landing gear and one to the left main landing gear—which occurred during landings. The instructor's opinion that the type is difficult to land may be valid, but the type in general does not appear to have an unusually prevalent history of such accidents in the United Kingdom. Over the past four years, four incidents of nose landing gear failure and two of left main landing gear failure had been reported among the over 90 aircraft of this type on the UK register.