Narrative:

I was doing takeoffs and landings. This was my third landing. I was in the landing pattern for runway 34. On the downwind leg; I was at 1;100 ft and 80 mph. The aircraft was trimmed to no-hands level flight. Everything seemed fine. I had the airplane turned a little into the wind; (wind was from the west) so the downwind ground track was where it should be. I turned base and then final and found myself low; at about 600 ft. I applied power; and held that altitude at 60 mph until I was near the runway; back on the landing glideslope and everything seemed to be ok; and I started the landing approach. Then; as I crossed the runway threshold; the nose dipped down. I applied power and airplane was responding when the landing gear hit the runway. There was a 'pop' and the nose dropped and the propeller began to hit the runway and I could see the propeller fold up a little more each time the blade hit the runway. The airplane slid to a stop. It was all smooth; no hard bumps or anything. I and the passenger were not stiff or sore; even the next day. It was all much smoother than flying in summer afternoon up-drafts. I have gone over what I remember in my mind many times. I have no concrete answer as to what caused the problem. The best I have come up with is that I did not recognize that I needed to abort the landing and execute a go-around.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C172 pilot reported that in the landing flare the nose dropped and subsequently the nose gear failed resulting in a propeller strike.

Narrative: I was doing takeoffs and landings. This was my third landing. I was in the landing pattern for Runway 34. On the downwind leg; I was at 1;100 FT and 80 MPH. The aircraft was trimmed to no-hands level flight. Everything seemed fine. I had the airplane turned a little into the wind; (wind was from the west) so the downwind ground track was where it should be. I turned base and then final and found myself low; at about 600 FT. I applied power; and held that altitude at 60 MPH until I was near the runway; back on the landing glideslope and everything seemed to be OK; and I started the landing approach. Then; as I crossed the runway threshold; the nose dipped down. I applied power and airplane was responding when the landing gear hit the runway. There was a 'pop' and the nose dropped and the propeller began to hit the runway and I could see the propeller fold up a little more each time the blade hit the runway. The airplane slid to a stop. It was all smooth; no hard bumps or anything. I and the passenger were not stiff or sore; even the next day. It was all much smoother than flying in summer afternoon up-drafts. I have gone over what I remember in my mind many times. I have no concrete answer as to what caused the problem. The best I have come up with is that I did not recognize that I needed to abort the landing and execute a go-around.

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.