A C172 flight instructor reported a hard nose wheel first bounced landing by his student. After go a...

Narrative:

During the landing flare my student abruptly moved the yoke full forward. My reaction time was not sufficient to correct the control input which resulted in a hard nose wheel landing followed by a pronounced bounce. I performed a balked landing procedure and asked the tower to take a look at the nose wheel. Tower could not see anything abnormal and I landed the airplane without incident. During the landing roll I realized that the nose tire was blown. I informed tower that I was unable to taxi to the ramp and asked tower to send a maintenance crew to the airplane. Within 10-15 minutes a maintenance crew changed the nose wheel tire and I taxied to the ramp. After inspection for damage I was informed by the maintenance supervisor that the lower portion of the firewall had a small dent and needed to be removed and replaced. He further informed me that the top portion of the firewall was undamaged. I asked the maintenance supervisor whether the dented lower firewall was considered 'substantial damage' and he said 'no.' he explained that as long as the damaged area was the lower portion of the firewall no 337 was required and; in fact; the airplane could be flown with a special flight permit to another maintenance facility for repairs. In light of the information provided by the maintenance supervisor; I concluded that this occurrence did not trigger the initial notification requirements pursuant to 49 crash fire rescue equipment part 830.5. However; I am unsure whether the maintenance supervisor's assessment is correct and/or accurate. I have tried to find some guidance about the distinction between the lower and upper firewall and its correlation to the structural integrity of the airplane. I have not been able to find the distinction and/or correlation on my own. It would be very beneficial if the definition of 'substantial damage' included a list of components that adversely affect the structural strength of an aircraft if damaged.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C172 Flight Instructor reported a hard nose wheel first bounced landing by his student. After go around and landing the nose tire was flat and Maintenance discovered damage to the firewall.

Narrative: During the landing flare my student abruptly moved the yoke full forward. My reaction time was not sufficient to correct the control input which resulted in a hard nose wheel landing followed by a pronounced bounce. I performed a balked landing procedure and asked the Tower to take a look at the nose wheel. Tower could not see anything abnormal and I landed the airplane without incident. During the landing roll I realized that the nose tire was blown. I informed Tower that I was unable to taxi to the ramp and asked Tower to send a maintenance crew to the airplane. Within 10-15 minutes a maintenance crew changed the nose wheel tire and I taxied to the ramp. After inspection for damage I was informed by the Maintenance Supervisor that the lower portion of the firewall had a small dent and needed to be removed and replaced. He further informed me that the top portion of the firewall was undamaged. I asked the Maintenance Supervisor whether the dented lower firewall was considered 'substantial damage' and he said 'no.' He explained that as long as the damaged area was the lower portion of the firewall no 337 was required and; in fact; the airplane could be flown with a special flight permit to another maintenance facility for repairs. In light of the information provided by the Maintenance Supervisor; I concluded that this occurrence did not trigger the initial notification requirements pursuant to 49 CFR Part 830.5. However; I am unsure whether the Maintenance Supervisor's assessment is correct and/or accurate. I have tried to find some guidance about the distinction between the lower and upper firewall and its correlation to the structural integrity of the airplane. I have not been able to find the distinction and/or correlation on my own. It would be very beneficial if the definition of 'Substantial Damage' included a list of components that adversely affect the structural strength of an aircraft if damaged.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	892657
Time
Date	201006
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Nose Gear Tire
Person 1
Function	Instructor Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 50 Flight Crew Total 5300 Flight Crew Type 400
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

A C172 flight instructor reported a hard nose wheel first bounced landing by his student. After go around and landing the nose tire was flat and maintenance discovered damage to the firewall.