Flight Details
The student pilot was conducting a two-leg day VFR cross-country flight. During the first leg, the pilot became temporarily disoriented and flew 30 minutes beyond the intended destination. He subsequently landed at an airport and topped off the airplane with fuel. The unscheduled landing delayed the pilot's itinerary by at least one hour. By the time he entered the traffic pattern on the downwind leg for runway 30, dark night conditions prevailed.
Incident Sequence
The student pilot reported being high on his first approach and executed a go-around. On the subsequent landing, he touched down long on the 4,165-foot runway. The airplane landed hard on the nose landing gear, then bounced and porpoised, causing the nose landing gear to collapse.
Pilot Experience
The student pilot had accumulated 2.6 hours of night flight with his flight instructor and had not been cleared for night solo flights.