Incident
During landing on runway 5 at Craig Municipal Airport, the pilot approached at a higher-than-normal airspeed. During the flare, the airplane porpoised twice. On the second porpoise, the nose landing gear touched down first and collapsed. The propeller struck the runway surface, and the airplane skidded to a stop approximately 10 feet beyond sand bags that marked the beginning of a construction zone on the runway.
The pilot noted that the touchdown was not harder than occasional hard landings experienced during flight training.
Examination
Postincident inspection of the nose landing gear revealed that it had separated at the point where the gear is welded to the strut. The nose landing gear was sent to the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington, DC, for further analysis.
Metallurgical examination of the nose gear showed that the weld between the strut tube and the spindle assembly was inadequate.