Incident Overview
A student pilot with 104 hours of total flight experience was performing a full-stop landing. The aircraft was configured with 20 degrees of flaps and the throttle at idle. According to the pilot, after flaring for the landing, the aircraft pitched up and began drifting to the left. In response, the pilot applied full right rudder and retracted the flaps to 10 degrees. This was the last event the pilot could recall before impact.
Impact and Damage
The airplane struck the ground in a nose-low attitude, nosed over, and came to rest inverted approximately 150 feet to the left of Runway 13. An examination of the aircraft revealed that the nose landing gear had been sheared off. Structural damage was sustained to the nose cone, propeller, engine compartment, fuselage, left wing, and tail section.
Environmental Conditions
At the time of the incident, the wind was reported from 090 degrees at 5 knots. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures prior to the mishap.