N757XS

On May 7, 2001, at 1140 hours Pacific daylight time, a Cessna 152, N757XS, sustained substantial damage during a hard landing at the Hayward, California, airport. The airplane was operated by Flying Viking, Inc., under the provisions of CFR Part 91, and rented by a student pilot who was not injured. Visual metrological conditions prevailed and no flight plan had been filed for the local instructional flight, which departed about 1115.

A Federal Aviation Administration Inspector interviewed the pilot and examined the airplane. The pilot stated he had flown two landing patterns with a certified flight instructor in preparation for his second solo flight. The instructor deplaned and the student made two successful touch-and-go landings prior to the accident. On the third landing the airplane landed hard, bounced, and landed on the nose wheel. The student said that the bounce "was very high and I [tried] to pitch down and let it glide, but the nose wheel touch[ed] down first." The nose wheel was folded back along the underside of the fuselage and the left wingtip struck the runway bending the wing spar.