Accident
On 2 February 1999 at 1546 hours, a Reims Cessna F152, registration G-BGSX, was involved in an accident at Biggin Hill Airport. The aircraft had been conducting solo circuits on Runway 29, which is 816 metres long and asphalt surfaced. The weather was reported as CAVOK with a wind from 280°M at 6 kt. The pilot, a 68-year-old student with 41 hours of flying experience (all on type), had flown two touch-and-go landings, which he judged to be normal. The instructor, who had authorised the solo circuits after a check circuit, observed the aircraft from the ground but could not see it on the runway. As the aircraft climbed away from the second touch-and-go, the instructor noticed that the nose landing gear was bent rearwards from its normal position. He contacted ATC and requested a message be passed to the pilot informing him of the apparent problem and asking him to make the next landing a full stop. He also advised the pilot to operate the mixture control to idle cut-off just before touchdown and to hold the nosewheel off the runway as long as possible. The pilot received the message, obtained clarification, and complied. The aircraft came to rest near the left side of the runway with no further damage to the nose landing gear and the propeller remaining clear of the runway. The pilot evacuated without difficulty.
Aircraft and Pilot
The aircraft was a Reims Cessna F152, manufactured in 1979, powered by one Lycoming O-235-L2C piston engine. The pilot held a student pilot licence and had first flown solo in November 1998, accumulating 2.2 hours of solo flying by the time of the accident. His training had been conducted largely by one instructor, who assessed all of his landings as satisfactory or good. On the day of the accident, the pilot flew a check circuit with the instructor, who then authorised additional solo circuits.
Examination
The nose landing gear was mounted on a welded steel tube space frame that attached to the fuselage forward bulkhead and also formed the engine mounting structure. This frame had been installed as a new item in November 1998 after a previous incident in which the previously installed frame was distorted by excessive nose landing gear loads. Due to available evidence and reservations by the maintenance organisation, the frame involved in the 2 February 1999 accident was examined in detail. The examination revealed severe plastic distortion of some tubes, one tube separated at a fillet weld attaching it to a nose leg mounting boss, and two tubular members were cracked. The DERA Structural Materials Centre (SMC) at Farnborough inspected the frame and found a slight lack of penetration in the root of the weld. However, SMC concluded that this would not have appreciably affected the strength and that all the frame damage resulted from severe overload. It was not possible to establish whether this was caused by single or multiple overloading.