What happened
During his fifth solo landing of the day, a student pilot with 35 hours of flight experience experienced a hard landing. Following the initial impact, the aircraft bounced, causing it to assume a nose-high attitude. In an attempt to correct the pitch, the pilot pushed the nose down, which resulted in a porpoising motion. The aircraft continued to porpoise approximately four times before the pilot was able to settle into a normal landing roll.
The pilot reported the incident to his flight instructor after taxiing the aircraft back to the ramp. At the time of the mishap, weather conditions were reported as calm.
The investigation
An examination of the aircraft revealed structural damage to the engine firewall.