Incident Overview
On July 5, 2010, at 1400 mountain daylight time, a Cessna 182 (registration N71784) landed hard and bounced while landing at Alamogordo-White Sands Regional Airport (KALM), New Mexico. The aircraft was registered to and operated by the White Sands Soaring Association, based in Alamogordo. The commercial pilot was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the glider-towing flight, which was conducted under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91.
Pilot's Account
The pilot reported that he was returning to land after towing a glider to altitude. He noted that the wind was gusting to 19 knots between 290 and 010 degrees. The pilot made two attempts to land on Runway 03 but elected to go-around each time due to a shimmy in the main landing gear. On the third attempt, he switched to Runway 34, a dirt runway. During that landing, he bounced and again elected to go-around. Convinced that something was wrong with the landing gear, he performed a low approach over Runway 21 and asked ground personnel to visually check the gear; they reported it looked fine. The pilot then made another attempt on Runway 34 and "bounced really hard 2-3 times." Once more, he went around and decided to try landing on Runway 03. After landing, the pilot reported that the shimmy persisted and the airplane veered toward the right side of the runway. As the aircraft slowed, he was able to taxi safely back to the ramp.
Examination Findings
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector examined the airplane. The inspector reported that the firewall was wrinkled, the engine mounts were deformed, the fuselage was damaged at the waterline, the propeller was damaged, and the nose gear mount bracket was pushed up into the fuselage. Flight control continuity was confirmed, and no anomalies were found with the engine or other airplane systems.