What happened
During the final phase of flight, the pilot executed a landing maneuver that resulted in significant structural stress on the aircraft's undercarriage. According to the pilot's account, he initiated the flare at an excessive height. To manage the descent rate, he pulled back on the control yoke. This input caused the airplane to porpoise, or bounce repeatedly, upon contact with the runway surface.
The pilot reported maintaining his backward pressure on the yoke through the third bounce. After this sequence of impacts, he relaxed the control input. The sudden change in load and the accumulated stress from the bounces led to the collapse of the nose landing gear. Additionally, the firewall sustained buckling damage due to the forces involved.
The investigation
The primary evidence for the sequence of events came from the pilot's own report. He acknowledged that the initial flare was too high, which necessitated the corrective back-pressure on the controls. This action directly contributed to the porpoising behavior. The structural failures were consistent with the forces generated by a hard landing following a bounce.
Findings
The accident was caused by the pilot's decision to flare high and his subsequent control inputs that led to porpoising. The collapse of the nose gear and the buckling of the firewall were direct results of these aerodynamic and mechanical stresses. In his post-accident report, the pilot identified a need for more flight time and more frequent landing practice as key factors in preventing such occurrences.