Accident Details
On June 20, 2012, at about 1900 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna 150F, registered as N524CC, experienced a runway excursion during landing roll at Westover Field/Amador County Airport in Jackson, California. The aircraft subsequently nosed over and sustained substantial damage. The student pilot, who was the sole occupant, was not injured. The airplane was registered to 2 Fly U, LLC in Penn Valley, California, and was operated by the student pilot under 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 Nevada County Air Park near Grass Valley, California, about 1830.
Pilot Report
The student pilot reported a normal landing on runway 1. As the nose wheel landing gear touched the runway, the airplane veered to the left. Despite control inputs, the airplane swerved and exited the right side of the runway. It traveled down an embankment about midfield and nosed over. The student pilot noted that the wind was from approximately 230 degrees at 6 knots and that the runway was dry at the time of the accident. A post-accident inspection by the pilot revealed a bent vertical stabilizer and rudder.
Post-Accident Examination
On June 26, 2012, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge examined the airplane at Plain Parts in Pleasant Grove, California. The examination found damage to a propeller blade tip area and the nose landing gear left and right rod end bearings separated into two sections. The rod end fittings were fractured through the threaded shank on the bearing side of the locking nut. These rod end bearings were sent to the NTSB Materials Laboratory for further analysis. 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.