What happened
On 2 February 1999, a Reims Cessna F1xy2, registration G-BGSX, was conducting a private training flight at Biggin Hill Airport. The pilot, a student with 41 hours of total flying experience, had been authorized to perform solo circuits following a check flight with an instructor. The weather was clear with good visibility and light winds.
During the flight, the pilot completed two touch-and-go landings on Runway 29. While the pilot initially perceived these landings as normal, an instructor watching from the ground observed the aircraft climbing away from the second circuit and noticed that the nose landing gear had bent rearwards. The instructor contacted Air Traffic Control to request that the pilot be advised to perform a full stop landing and to use specific engine management techniques, including cutting the mixture to idle cut-off just before touchdown to minimize nosewheel contact.
Following these instructions, the pilot landed the aircraft, which came to rest near the left side of the runway. There were no injuries to the pilot, and the propeller remained undamaged. However, the aircraft sustained damage to the nose landing gear and its support frame.
The investigation
Investigators examined the aircraft's nose landing gear support frame, which consisted of a welded steel tube space frame attached to the fuselage and engine mounting structure. This specific frame had been installed as a new component in November 1998 following a previous incident involving structural distortion.
Detailed inspection of the frame revealed severe plastic distortion in several tubes, cracks in two tubular members, and a separation at a fillet weld where a tube met a mounting boss. While structural analysis by the DERA Structural Materials Centre identified a slight lack of weld penetration at the root, experts concluded this deficiency was not significant enough to compromise the strength of the component. The investigation determined that the structural damage was the result of severe overload applied to the frame.