20101207055259A

On December 7th, 2010, at approximately 1230 pm local time, a student pilot was involved in an aircraft accident resulting from a hard touchdown, while landing at the Lawrence municipal airport (klwc), Lawrence, Kansas. The aircraft involved in this accident is a Cessna CE-172-S, which is owned and operated by a local flight school. Visual meteorological conditions (VMC) existed at the time of the accident, with light winds favoring a landing on runway 01. The airman had approximately 7 hours of solo flight experience prior to this flight. Per the airman, a local flight was to be conducted to the practice area; however, on departure, the airman elected to remain in the traffic pattern to perform touch-and-go landings. The first touch-and-go landing on runway 01 was uneventful. During the second approach to landing, the airman stated that the turn to the base leg was initiated earlier than normal, resulting in a turn to final at a higher altitude than desired. The airman attempted to correct for the excessive altitude on final by configuring with full flaps and lowering the aircraft's pitch attitude. This correction resulted in a final approach speed of 80-85 knots; normal approach speed with full flaps extended is approximately 65 knots. Per the airman, solo traffic pattern operations had not been previously conducted on runway 01, thus the airman expressed concern over the aircraft's ability to land on the shorter runway with a slightly higher approach speed; runway 01 is 3,901 ft by 75 ft. in an attempt to land the aircraft on the remaining runway, the airman elected to lower the aircraft's nose. The resultant lower pitch caused the aircraft to land in a level attitude, bounce, and ultimately porpoise several times before rolling to a stop. Per the airman, a go around was not attempted upon recognition of a high glidepath or during the faulty landing. During the bounce and subsequent porpoise, the aircraft sustained substantial damage. The student pilot was uninjured.