WPR12LA272

The student pilot reported that as the nose wheel landing gear touched down after a normal landing, the airplane suddenly veered to the left. When the student pilot applied control inputs to correct the veer, the airplane swerved “extremely fast” to the right and exited the right side of the runway. Subsequently, the airplane traveled down an embankment and nosed over. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that both the left and right nose landing gear rod end bearings were fractured. Metallurgical analysis of the rod end bearing fracture surfaces indicated that they exhibited features consistent with overload failures in an aft direction; however, investigators were unable to determine if the overload failures occurred as a result of a hard landing or during the runway excursion.

On June 20, 2012, about 1900 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna 150F, N524CC, sustained substantial damage when it exited the runway during landing roll and nosed over at the Westover Field/Amador County Airport, Jackson, California. The student pilot, sole occupant of the airplane, was not injured. The airplane was registered to 2 Fly U, LLC in Penn Valley, California and operated by the student pilot under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a solo cross-country flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The instructional flight originated from the Nevada County Air Park, near Grass Valley, California about 1830. The student pilot reported that following a normal landing on runway 1 as the nose wheel landing gear touched the runway, the airplane veered to the left. Despite the student pilot's control inputs, the airplane began to swerve and exited the right side of the runway. The airplane traveled down an embankment about midfield and nosed over. The student pilot reported the wind was from about 230 degrees at 6 knots, and the runway was dry during the time of the accident. Examination of the airplane by the student pilot revealed that the vertical stabilizer and rudder were bent. A post-accident examination of the airplane was conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge on June 26, 2012 at the facilities of Plain Parts in Pleasant Grove, California. The examination revealed damage to a propeller blade tip area and the nose landing gear left and right rod end bearings were found separated into two sections. The rod end fittings were fractured through the threaded shank on the bearing side of the locking nut. The rod end bearings were sent to the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington, D.C. for further examination. An NTSB metallurgist reported that magnified optical examinations of both fractures revealed similarly textured, matte grey fracture surfaces mostly oriented at approximately 45 degrees to the long axis of the fittings consistent with overstress fracturing. Deformation of adjacent threaded shanks was consistent with bending loads in plane with the head of the fittings.