Lancair Columbia
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 28; Flight Crew Total 1092; Flight Crew Type 83
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Ground Excursion Runway
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
As I was setting up cruise at 11;500 ft. I noticed my speed was not what it should be with a bit of a tailwind and the plane was yawing severely to the right. I used a fair amount of left rudder to keep the ball centered for the whole flight. I tried to figure out what could be wrong with the plane to cause this; but could not come up with a plausible explanation. Checked the trim; looked at the flaps; ailerons; elevator where visible and could see nothing. [On a previous flight] there was pretty substantial turbulence and I thought maybe something happened to the rudder that I missed on the preflight. Other than being slow and requiring the constant pressure on the left rudder pedal; the flight was uneventful. Approach cleared me through the Bravo airspace utilizing the west transition to get to the south side of the Bravo airspace. Once clear of Bravo; they terminated VFR Flight Following and I contacted Tower about 10 miles west and indicated inbound for landing with ATIS. I believe Tower had me #2 with a 2 mile final. I had nice stable approach utilizing a fair amount of left rudder to align with the center line at a 90 kt. approach. I crossed the numbers at about 84 kts. and mains touched down at about 76 kts. When the nose gear settled; the aircraft immediately shot straight right off the side of the runway. I worked the left rudder pedal and brake to try and regain control and got the plane back on the runway fairly quickly. Tower asked if I needed assistance and I told them no. I tried to explain what happened but really did not know. Tower said to contact ground. I did so and they said the pilot waiting to depart said my nose wheel was canted 45 degrees to the right as I came by them. That would explain the yaw and the plane shooting off to the right on landing. I contacted a mechanic and he will be looking at the plane to [determine] what the issue is and what it will take to repair that issue. The mechanic said there is a pin on the strut that can break and cause this issue. He said I was very fortunate to have regained control and the nose gear released and was able to track again. He said when that pin breaks; very often the nose gear will not release and allow straight forward movement. I had no idea that this is a not uncommon occurrence with these aircraft. I had googled a description of what happened and got nothing coming up that would explain what the mechanic told me.
Reporter stated that the mechanic said strut pin failure is not uncommon. Reporter added that the pin slides into a V groove to center the nose gear upon retraction. The aircraft has since been repaired at an authorized Cessna shop. Reporter stated that the shop would not supply the mechanic with details on the failure.
Columbia 400 Single Pilot reported a temporary loss of control resulting in a runway excursion due to nosewheel component failure on landing.