LAX04LA247

The airplane landed hard and porpoised down the runway. During the landing, the pilot began his flare 1/3 of the way down the runway. The airplane's approach speed was slightly high and the flare was longer than the pilot expected. When he was halfway down the runway, he further raised the airplane's nose to land. The pilot realized that he was too high for a normal touchdown and was also slow. The airplane landed hard and bounced three times before the nose wheel collapsed.

On December 10, 2003, about 0736 mountain standard time, a Cessna 150M, N63149, landed hard and porpoised down the runway at Ryan Field Airport, Tucson, Arizona. International Airline Training Academy, Inc., was operating the airplane under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91. The student pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured; the airplane sustained substantial damage. The instructional solo local flight departed from Tucson about 0700. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed.

In a written statement, the pilot reported that he had completed an approach for runway 6R. During the landing, he began his flare 1/3 of the way down the runway. The airplane's approach speed was slightly high and the flare was longer than the pilot expected. When he was halfway down the runway, he continued to pull back on the control yoke and raised the airplane's nose to land. The pilot realized that he was too high for a normal touchdown and was also slow. The airplane landed hard and entered a pilot induced/porpoise oscillation. It bounced three times before the nose wheel collapsed.

This was upgraded from an incident to an accident on June 23, 2004. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector examined the airplane after the accident and noted damage to the firewall in addition to the damage to the landing gear.