The pilot had flown into the "Trevallyn" agricultural strip and was about to commence operations. After the
aircraft was loaded with 12 hundredweight of superphosphate the pilot made a normal turn away from the superphosphate dump and began his take-off in calm conditions. After travelling approximately 100 feet, and at a
speed of about 40 knots, the aircraft veered to starboard. The pilot endeavoured to correct the swing by use of
rudder and when he found he could not control the aircraft he closed the throttle in order to abandon the takeoff.
The aircraft ran for some 150 feet towards the right hand side of the strip before the pilot was able to
re-align it with the strip. It then ran for 21 feet along the edge of the strip before the nose gear assembly
collapsed and the nose of the aircraft dropped. The propeller struck the ground several times and the aircraft
nosed over on to its back and slid for a distance of 15 feet before coming to rest inverted.
During the examination of the wreckage it was found that the nose gear lower pivot support assembly had failed.
It was established that the failure occurred because the component was weakened by the presence of a large
fatigue crack extending across the whole width of the lower face of the box section. The fatigue failure originated
on either side of a pre-existing crack, the location and general appearance of which were consistent with
restraint cracking which could have occurred during welding of the pivot housing to the box section at manufacture.