Eiriavion Oy PIK 20B N99136

Summary

On 16 June 2011 at about 19:00 local time, a Eiriavion Oy PIK 20B registered N99136, operated by Timothy Greenwood, was involved in an accident near Sterling, Massachusetts, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

16 June 2011 at 19:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Sterling, Massachusetts, United States

Nearest airport

Sterling Airport (3B3)

Coordinates

42.4222, -71.7889

Aircraft

Eiriavion Oy PIK 20B

Registration

N99136

Category

Glider

Operator

Timothy Greenwood

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Sterling → Sterling

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA11CA350

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's misjudgment of the amount of flaps required to attain the proper touchdown point. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's limited experience in the high performance glider.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

According to the pilot, this was his first flight in this flap only, high performance glider. The glider was towed to 5,000 feet, where the pilot practiced pattern work as well as extending and retracting the flaps, from zero degrees to 90 degrees, while maintaining an adequate airspeed for landing. The pilot entered a tight traffic pattern at the airport and extended the flaps to 30 degrees. On the final leg of the traffic pattern, the glider was in line with the runway, and the pilot intended to extend the flaps to 45 degrees, but was unsure if he did so. When the glider was halfway down the runway, the pilot knew he had excessive airspeed and was going to land further down the runway than intended. Near the end of the runway, the pilot thought he landed so he pushed the controls forward in order to gain ground control, but the glider continued over trees past the end of the runway. Since the glider did not have enough altitude to safely turn back to the runway, the pilot landed it in trees resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage. The pilot stated that he accumulated 107 hours of total flight time in a glider, of which, no hours were in the same make and model as the accident glider. The pilot reported there were no preexisting mechanical anomalies with the glider.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.