N4260L

The airplane landed hard, bounced, encountered porpoise, and the nose landing gear collapsed. The 43-hour student pilot reported that he was returning from his first solo cross-country flight. He added that while landing on runway 16, which was reported to be 7,000-foot long, by 150-foot wide, he misjudged the height of the airplane above the runway and the airplane stalled at dropped-in from a height of 10-feet. After the initial bounce, the aircraft began to porpoise, and the nose landing gear collapsed after the second bounce. The pilot attempted to taxi the airplane off the active runway. According to the Federal Aviation Administration inspector, who responded to the accident, the engine firewall sustained structural damage. The impact also fractured the nose gear assembly and buckled the engine firewall. The pilot was uninjured and was able to egress from the airplane unassisted. At the time of the accident, the on-field weather observation station reported the wind from 170 degree at 4 knots.