Yes, the engine has been torn down.  Also the airframe, gear and engine
mount are being inspected for damage.

I was hoping to avoid the embarrassment of having to tell what happened, but
I guess I owe it to my fellow LNC2 fliers.

This is especially embarrassing because I am a 3600 hr. pilot with not a
single incident on my record.  I went through Navy flight school in 1971 and
flew Phantoms off of carriers.  I got out in 1977.  I have been an active
pilot ever since and have a commercial ticket with instruments in ASMEL and
helos.  I have owned several high-performance airplanes over the years, the
one just before the Lancair being a Cessna 340.  I bought my 320 from the
builder, Woody Haynes, in April of this year.  Woody is a friend of mine and
I watched him build the plane.  He lost his medical and put the plane up for
sale.

I have about 50 hours in my 320.  I learned to fly it from the guy who did
all of the initial test flying in it and who flew it regularly on business
(not Woody).  I love my little airplane and feel like I fly it well, except
I have yet to make a landing that I was satisfied with, let alone proud of!
The plane has the original donuts and there is virtually no "give" in the
suspension.  I have bounced every landing I've ever made in it, some pretty
badly.  I have porpoised several times, and once landed on the nose gear so
hard I blew the seals in the strut.  I had it rebuilt by Lancair and had
them add the self-centering feature.  They also added a reinforcing flange
to mount to the fork.  I didn't know about Tim Ong's oleos until just
recently (I posted an inquiry about them on this list a few weeks ago).

So, a couple of weeks ago I was doing touch and gos trying to perfect my
landing "technique."  I guess I just pushed the envelope a little too far
(or I wasn't paying enough attention!) and I got too slow too high.  My
plane stalls very crisply... no buffet, no nothing.  It just stops flying
and the nose drops (forward CG with just me [180#] and a full header).  So
there I was, about five or six feet off the runway, ¾ flaps, bleeding off
airspeed and starting my flare when the nose fell through and I landed nose
down and hard on the nose gear.  I heard a grinding noise that stopped as
the nose bounced back up.  After a couple of bounces on the mains I got it
under control and then started wondering what caused the grinding noise (the
engine was still running fine, with no unusual vibrations or anything).  I
assumed I had damaged the nose gear somehow.  I taxied cautiously off the
runway and shut her down.  As the prop stopped I realized what I had done!
Q-tips!

Needless to say, I ordered the new shocks and they will be going on while
I'm waiting for a prop.  All the engine parts have been inspected and no
problems.

Lee Metcalfe
N320WH #449