N6496L

On February 7, 2022, about 1600 Pacific standard time, a Cessna 152, N6496L, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident at Chemehuevi Valley Airport, Chemehuevi Valley, California. The student pilot was not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations instructional flight.

The flight was the first time the student had flown solo, having just received an endorsement from his flight instructor earlier in the day. He stated that during the first solo landing, the airplane experienced a pronounced nose wheel shimmy after touchdown. He exited the runway and communicated the event to his flight instructor, who told him it was likely a result of excessive braking after touchdown. He then departed and performed a series of uneventful takeoffs and landings while remaining in the traffic pattern. He stated that during his fifth takeoff, which was part of a touch-and-go landing, after reaching rotation speed, he pulled back on the yoke, but the airplane did not rotate. He verified the flight instruments and tried again, and although the nose pitched up slightly, the airplane did not rotate. He released back pressure on the yoke and realized that during the takeoff attempt, the airplane had veered to the left of the runway. The airplane departed the runway and collided with a small tree.

The airplane damage was generally limited to the left wing, which had folded down at the root, and the nosewheel, which remained partially attached to the firewall but had bent aft. Examination did not reveal any anomalies with the pitch control system. The elevator trim was set to the takeoff position, and the flaps were in the fully retracted (zero flaps) position.

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 and 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, and 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 according to Textron Aviation had a breaking strength of 1,760 pounds.

The damaged sections of both cables were sent to the National Transportation Safety Board Materials Laboratory for analysis. Examination of the right rudder cable revealed that its diameter, which was nominally 0.132 inches through most of its length, had worn down to between 0.105 inch to 0.117 inch in the region that passed over the aft pulley. Multiple worn and broken wires were identified within this region.

Examination of the separated portions of left rudder cable revealed that it had fully fractured in the region around the aft pulley. Approximately 52% of the wires exhibited wear with about 43% of the wires exhibiting material loss through the full diameter of the wire due to wear. The balance of the wires fractured in overstress across the full wire diameter.

A visual inspection of the right and left aft pulleys showed that the grooves in the pulleys exhibited deposits and remnants of dried or degraded grease. No fresh grease was present. The airplane’s most recent annual inspection was completed 3 months before the accident.