What happened
Following a two-hour cross-country flight, the pilot refueled the aircraft by adding five gallons of fuel to each wing tank. During the subsequent return flight, the airplane was cruising at an altitude of 3,500 feet when the engine lost power approximately 1.5 hours into the leg. The pilot initiated a forced landing in a field that had been freshly plowed.
During the landing roll, the nose wheel encountered the soft ground and dug in, which caused the nose gear to collapse. This mechanical failure resulted in the airplane nosing over. Post-accident inspection revealed that the left fuel tank was completely empty, while the right tank contained approximately one pint of fuel.
The investigation
Examination of the aircraft confirmed that the left fuel tank was empty and the right tank held only a minimal amount of fuel. This finding supports the conclusion that the engine failure was caused by fuel exhaustion. No other mechanical anomalies were reported that would account for the power loss prior to the landing.
Findings
The primary factor in this accident was the depletion of usable fuel during cruise flight. The decision to land in a freshly plowed field contributed to the severity of the damage, as the soft soil prevented a controlled rollout and led to the collapse of the nose gear.