Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

On August 7, 1998, at 1407 mountain daylight time, a Cessna 172N, N118FP, operated by Wings of Denver and doing business as Airwest, Inc., was substantially damaged when it collided with terrain while landing at Broomfield, Colorado. The private pilot and two passengers were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the personal flight operated under Title 14 CFR Part 91. The flight originated at Greeley, Colorado, approximately 1245.

According to the pilot's accident report, he was cleared to land on runway 11R. He used 20 degrees of flaps and an approach speed of 70 knots. The pilot wrote: "As I began to flare, I experienced a slight sinking more so than usual, possibly caused by wind so I applied more back pressure and when the sinking was at an acceptable rate right before touchdown, I let the nose back down again since things suddenly seemed to stabilize during my flare. As I let the nose down, the aircraft lightly came up again so I tried to put it down again thinking that my airspeed was to close to stall speed for a go around. I touched down hard I believe on the rear wheels and then could not keep the airplane on the ground so I applied forward pressure this time hitting the nose gear. An unusual sensation of an uncontrolled oscillation began to occur as sort of 'porpoising effect' but I finally managed to make a controlled landing."

According to the Jeffco METAR, the wind was from 360 degrees at 5 knots. The nose landing gear was bent aft, the firewall was buckled, the engine mounts were bent, and the lower cowling and fuselage skin were wrinkled. The pilot was able to taxi the airplane to the ramp.

The recently certificated private pilot received his license just 10 days before the accident. The pilot's improper remedial action after making a hard landing and porpoising. A factor was his lack of total experience.