The student was carrying out a practice forced landing on Delissaville airstrip as part of a pre-licence test. After the student had initiated the flare for landing, the instructor became aware of a high descent rate but too late to prevent a hard landing. The instructor took control, carried out a touch and go, then advised the student to return to Darwin. Inspection there, revealed that the aircraft had suffered substantial damage as a result of the hard landing. The student was landing on a strip that presented different visual cues to the strip he had used for most of his training. During the approach the instructor allowed his attention to be diverted from his monitoring task. The student also believes that he allowed his attention to wander from the landing to the next situation that the instructor may have presented to him, and flared too high. This accident was not the subject of an on-site investigation.
