MIA99LA225

During his solo landing, the student pilot was observed to pull the nose up to the landing attitude a little early, relative to the height above the runway, hold the landing attitude, and touch down hard enough to cause a bounced landing. A series of oscillatory, porpoising maneuvers resulted, and the nose gear separated. The airplane slid to a stop on the main landing gear and the nose cowl.

On August 17, 1999, about 0840 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 152, N5416M, registered to Mike Aviation, Inc., operating as a Title 14 CFR Part 91 instructional flight, crashed on landing at Ocala Regional Airport, Ocala, Florida. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The airplane received substantial damage and the student pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. The flight originated from the same airport about 10 minutes before the accident.

According to the student pilot, he had just been endorsed by his flight instructor for solo flight about 30 minutes before the accident. He abandoned his first approach and executed a go-around because his flare looked a little high. On his second landing attempt, "the nose went up and lost all lift and landed hard on both main gear, I hit too hard and bounced in the air at least twice until the nose gear collapsed and broke off, I then slid on the nose until I came to a complete stop."

According to the student's instructor, who was positioned next to the touchdown area of the runway with a hand held radio, she thought the student was in perfect position and speed when he crossed the runway threshhold on his second approach. He pulled the nose up to the landing flare attitude a little early, relative to height above the runway, and held that attitude until touchdown. The result was a very firm touchdown that caused a bounced landing, followed by the porpoising. She stated that she transmitted, "power" to the student just before touchdown, but he stated he heard no such transmission. She continued to transmit, "power" as she saw the porpoising develop, but by that time, as was later revealed, he heard nothing because his headset became dislodged after the first bounce. The instructor's statement is included in this report, as well as a record of telephone conversation.