- Date
- October 21, 2021, 10:38 local (14:38 UTC)
- Place
- Columbia, SC
- Injuries
- 1 serious
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N812DSPipistrel Apis-Bee
- Defining event
- Landing: Loss of control in flight
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20211021017229A
- Case key
- 104146
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain control of the glider during the landing approach, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and subsequent impact with the runway.
Findings · 2
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
According to the pilot, this was the first flight he made in the glider. He performed the first landing with the engine up and idling, and then during the second time around the traffic pattern, he stowed the engine during the downwind leg. When he turned the glider onto the base leg of the traffic pattern, he realized that he was “coming in high,” so he extended the airbrakes. He thought the glider needed a “little more help” descending, so he put the glider into a side slip. The pilot slipped the glider two more times, and on the third slip, the nose of the glider “dropped,” and it impacted the runway in a nose down position, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage. Postaccident examination of the glider revealed no evidence of any preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N812DS
- Reported as
- Pipistrel Apis-Bee
- Category
- Glider
- Serial number
- 052ABF33
- Built
- 2021
- Engine
- Hirth F33 BS, 28 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Airport
- CUB · Jim Hamilton L B Owens, runway 13/31, 5,011 × 75 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- Unknown
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 61
- Injuries
- Serious
- Certificates
- Sport Pilot, Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Unknown, Unknown
- Seat
- Single
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 70 °F, dew point 61 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.20 inHg
- Observed at
- CUB
- METAR
- KCUB 211453Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 21/16 A3020 RMK AO2 SLP226 T02110156 50001
Docket · 4
The files NTSB released with the investigation on December 30, 2021, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 2.4 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.