Covering form of preliminary or final report
| Date of event : | 2021-06-05 |
| Incident number : | CZ-21-0234 |
| Report : | Final report |
| Place of event : | Liberec airport |
| Registration mark : | Accident |
| Weight category MTOM: : | <2250 kg |
| Type of operation : | Recreational and sport aviation |
| Plane / SFM : | Gliders |
| Type of plane / SFM : | Scheibe Flugzeugbau SF 34 |
| Health effects of event : | Without injury |
| PDF document : | 
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Description:
SUMMARY
Overview
On 5 June 2021, the AAII was notified of an air accident of the SF 34 glider at LKLB. As the glider was landing, “pancaking” took place and the glider made a hard landing in front of the gliders strip threshold running in parallel with RWY 34, which caused damage to the fuselage. The crew were not injured.
Factual Information
On 5 July 2021, the instructor with the pilot were performing an upgrading flight to train for advanced piloting. After 30 minutes of flying and training of spins and spin avoidance, the pilot led the glider to the left circuit of runway 34. He properly carried out all the tasks and piloted the flight for landing. Following the fourth circuit, the pilot opened the airbrakes fully and the glider began descending. After a while, the pilot closed the airbrakes approximately halfway, but the instructor instructed him to extend them fully to which the pilot responded by fully opening the airbrakes again and leaving them in an extended position. In the final stage of the flight, the pilot failed to carry out a landing flare and the glider landed in front of the gliders strip threshold on the front wheel.
Analysis
The crew held the necessary qualification and were medically fit for performing the given flight. The pilot and the instructor had sufficient flying experience with the aircraft type. The glider had a valid airworthiness certificate and was fit to fly. The weather was suitable for the flight activity and had no impact on the occurrence of the incident.
The landing parameters were estimated for the runway threshold while the approach airspeed was slightly lower in the final phase of approach (approx. 95 km.h-1). In this landing phase, the pilot did not pull the stick back to flare out and the glider’s nose was pointing towards the ground. The instructor issued an instruction to “pull the stick back” and, at the same time, sharply pulled the stick back himself. The glider was levelled with the longitudinal axis of the ground; however, the manoeuvre was followed by pancaking and hard landing on the main spring-loaded wheel approx. 15 m in front of the gliders strip threshold running in parallel with RWY 34. Some 10 m farther, the glider entered uneven terrain and the main wheel ran into a 25–30 cm deep trench. When going out of the trench, the main wheel sank into the edge of unevenness and the glider’s nose rose sharply, which caused the glider’s tail part hard hitting the ground. Having hit the unevenness, the glider bounced up to some 0.5 m and touched down approx. 10 m farther.
After the landing, it was detected that the glider body had sustained damage in the form of delamination and cracks in the upper part and both sides of the shell; no other damage was identified.
Causes
The accident was caused by the glider pilot’s erroneous piloting during the landing manoeuvre and instructor’s delayed reaction to the occurrence of an air accident.
Attached final report in PDF file is in original Czech language.