ERA22LA247 · Cessna 150F

The pilot reported that, during a personal flight while in the traffic pattern, he applied power after the first landing to perform a touch-and-go landing. During the takeoff roll, the pilot moved the flaps from a landing to takeoff setting, at which time the airplane began pulling hard to the left. The pilot attempted to correct this movement with full right rudder and right brake, but the airplane continued off the runway and into grass. The pilot reduced power to idle during the runway excursion but was unable to control the direction of the airplane, and it nosed over. The wings, fuselage, and vertical stabilizer sustained substantial damage. The left nose landing gear (NLG) steering connecting rod had fractured at its connection point. The right steering connecting rod remained connected. Laboratory examination of the fracture surfaces of the rod end fitting revealed slant fractures consistent with overstress. The plastic deformation along with the slant fracture features were consistent with bending overstress. The NLG connecting rod had likely fractured and become disconnected during the runway excursion or noseover; the laboratory examination found that the fracture was due to a one-time instance of overload and was not the result of cumulative applications of force. Furthermore, the airplane veered to the left, which was consistent with the left-turning tendencies that would be experienced upon power application during a touch-and-go. It is possible that during the touch-and-go landing attempt, the pilot was distracted with changing the flap setting. Ultimately, he did not maintain directional control of the airplane, which resulted in its departure from the runway surface.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset