The 79-hour solo student pilot later said he was on final approach at an indicated airspeed of 70 knots with the airplane configured with 20-degrees of flaps. After crossing over trees at the north end of the runway and while “still descending in a nose-down attitude…the airplane literally dropped out of the air.” The airplane struck the runway, collapsing the nose gear, and skidded approximately 900 feet before coming to rest on the main landing gear and the bottom of the engine cowling.
