Accident to the Cessna - 172 - S registered F-HIJI on 11/10/2019 at Toussus-le-Noble (78)

Note: The following information is principally based on the pilot’s statement. This information has not been independently validated by the BEA.

This is a courtesy translation by the BEA of the Final Report on the Safety Investigation published in March 2020. As accurate as the translation may be, the original text in French is the work of reference.

1 - History of the flight

Returning from a local flight, the pilot was on approach to paved runway 25L with the intention of conducting aerodrome circuits. On the second touch-and-go, the aircraft's main landing gear made hard contact with the runway. The aircraft bounced twice, puncturing the nose wheel tire and causing the propeller to rub against the runway. After the third contact, the pilot attempted to brake and then lost control of the aircraft which veered off the right side of the runway. While running on the runway safety area, the aircraft came to a stop in a rut, bending the nose landing gear and damaging the propeller.

2 - Additional information

2.1 Information about the pilot

The pilot, who held a private pilot licence issued in 2013, was trained on CESSNA 172 and 175 and had logged 291 flight hours of which 131 hours as pilot-in-command, 100 hours as pilot, and 150 hours in dual control on CESSNAs. His last flight before the occurrence was on 6 September 2019.

The pilot indicated that he could not recall his specific actions during the bounce, particularly whether he made a nose-down input or not.

2.2 Weather Information

The pilot reported that weather conditions at the time were a fairly strong wind on the runway centreline. The wind recorded by the control tower was 210° at 9 kt.