On March 17, 1996, at 1625 central standard time (cst), a Cessna 150, N1532Q, piloted by a student pilot, sustained substantial damage during a forced landing. The pilot was attempting to divert to an alternate airport, after encountering a weather front with low clouds and rain. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The 14 CFR Part 91 flight was operating on a VFR flight plan. The pilot was uninjured. The flight originated at Joplin, Missouri, at 1340 cst, and was en route to Newton, Kansas. The pilot wrote on the NTSB form 6120.1/2 that before takeoff the fuel tanks had been topped off with 9.7 gallons of fuel. The pilot reported that the ground speed of the airplane during the flight, was lower than the calculated ground speed which he computed before takeoff. The pilot wrote that after encountering the low clouds and rain, he started to divert to an alternate airport, and became concerned because of low fuel readings. The pilot said he advised Wichita Flight Service of his low fuel situation, and was attempting to land at an airport near Howard, Kansas. The pilot wrote that the engine had a complete loss of power, was restarted, and then lost power again. The pilot wrote that during the forced landing in a plowed field, the airplane's nose gear sank into the soft ground, causing the airplane to flip over. The investigator in charge (IIC) obtained the weather briefing given to the pilot over the telephone for the day of the accident flight. The weather forecast given to the pilot, for the intended route was clouds greater than 10,000 feet with unrestricted visibility. The IIC also obtained the en route communications that the pilot made with the flight service and radar facilities. The FSS gave the pilot a frequency to communicate with the local radar facilities. The pilot told the FSS specialist that he would get assistance from the center radar facility to help verify his location. After the accident N1532Q was refueled by a mechanic from Brecheisen Aviation. The mechanic test ran the engine and reported that the engine started and operated normally between 600 and 1100 revolutions per minute. The airplane's upper wing skins, nose gear, engine mount, cowling, rudder and propeller were bent in the accident.