The pilot was carrying out a practice circuit. Although the approach was good, the flare was initiated too high. The pilot attempted to correct by lowering the nose, however he was late in initiating the second flare. The aircraft struck the ground and bounced into a nose high attitude. The pilot again lowered the nose which resulted in another bounce. The gear finally collapsed after the third ground impact. The instructor assessed that the pilot's performance on earlier dual flights that day was of a sufficiently high standard to authorise him to do a solo circuit. However, on this circuit the flare height was misjudged and the technique used to recover from the bounced landing was incorrect.
