Accident Sequence
On February 7, 2022, at about 1600 Pacific standard time, a Cessna 152, registration N6496L, was substantially damaged during an accident at Chemehuevi Valley Airport, Chemehuevi Valley, California. The student pilot, who was on his first solo flight after receiving an endorsement earlier that day, was not injured. The flight was conducted as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations instructional flight.
The pilot stated that during his first solo landing, the airplane experienced a pronounced nose wheel shimmy after touchdown. He exited the runway and informed his flight instructor, who attributed the shimmy to excessive braking. The pilot then performed several uneventful touch-and-go landings and departures in the traffic pattern. During his fifth takeoff, which was part of a touch-and-go, after reaching rotation speed, he pulled back on the yoke but the airplane did not rotate. He verified the flight instruments and tried again; the nose pitched up slightly but the airplane still did not rotate. He released back pressure and noticed that the airplane had veered left of the runway. The airplane departed the runway and collided with a small tree.
Aircraft Examination
Damage was generally limited to the left wing, which folded down at the root, and the nosewheel, which remained partially attached to the firewall but had bent aft. Examination revealed no anomalies with the pitch control system. The elevator trim was set to the takeoff position, and the flaps were fully retracted (zero flaps).
The left nosewheel steering control rod was bent, and the eyebolts for both steering rods had broken away from the nosewheel trunnion. The shimmy damper remained attached to its steering arm but had also broken away from the trunnion. The separation surfaces of the control rods and shimmy damper exhibited damage consistent with overload.
The right rudder cable was continuous from the foot pedal assembly to the control surface, while the left cable had separated around the aft pulley in the tailcone. Examination of both cables revealed significant wear and wire fractures at the points where the cables passed around the aft pulleys. Both pulleys were free and could be spun easily by hand.
The cables were nominally 1/8-inch diameter, 7 by 19 wire construction, grade 304 stainless steel, which had a breaking strength of 1,760 pounds according to Textron Aviation.
Rudder Cable Condition
Damaged sections of both cables were sent to the National Transportation Safety Board Materials Laboratory for analysis. The right rudder cable diameter, nominally 0.132 inches through most of its length, had worn to between 0.105 and 0.117 inch in the region passing over the aft pulley. Multiple worn and broken wires were identified within that region.
Examination of the separated portions of the left rudder cable revealed it had fully fractured in the region around the aft pulley. Approximately 52% of the wires exhibited wear, with about 43% showing material loss through the full diameter due to wear. The remaining wires fractured in overstress across the full wire diameter.
A visual inspection of the right and left aft pulleys showed that the grooves contained deposits and remnants of dried or degraded grease; no fresh grease was present. The airplane's most recent annual inspection was completed three months before the accident.