Primary finding
Probable cause
The student pilot's inadequate recovery from a bounced landing.
Investigator assessment
Analysis narrative
The student pilot was practicing in the local area and returned to the carlsbad palomar airport. While in the traffic pattern, the airport runway was closed due to a disabled aircraft and the pilot diverted to fallbrook to await the reopening of the carlsbad runway. The aircraft landed hard at fallbrook, porpoised, and broke off the nose gear strut, damaging the engine firewall. The operator stated that the pilot has been endorsed for solo flights to the fallbrook airport and has landed there before.
Source record
Factual narrative
On September 24, 1994, at 1330 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna 152, N89546, sustained substantial damage during a hard landing at the Fallbrook, California, airport. The aircraft was operated by Four Winds Aviation, Inc., of Carlsbad, California, and was rented by the pilot for a local area solo instructional flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time and no flight plan was filed. The student pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. The flight originated at the Carlsbad Palomar airport on the day of the accident at 1200 hours. According to the operator, the 37-hour student pilot was practicing in the local area and returned to the Carlsbad Palomar airport. While in the traffic pattern, the airport runway was closed due to a disabled aircraft and the pilot diverted to Fallbrook to await the reopening of the Carlsbad runway. The aircraft landed hard at Fallbrook, porpoised, and broke off the nose gear strut, damaging the engine firewall. The operator stated that the pilot has been endorsed for solo flights to the Fallbrook airport and has landed there before. -