1 Aug 2009: LET L13 G — David V. Vanderlinden

1 Aug 2009: LET L13 G — David V. Vanderlinden

No fatalities • Sparta, NY, United States

Probable cause

The student pilot's failure to maintain airspeed resulting in an aerodynamic stall.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

The student pilot encountered a thermal lift, and climbed to 3,000 feet. He stated in a statement to law enforcement personnel, "I got myself into a spin that I was not sure how to get out of." He further stated, "Somehow I was able to get myself out of that, and was headed back to the airport. This is where it gets vague to me. I think I started into another spin." Another glider pilot who departed 10 to 15 minutes before the student pilot stated he observed the glider about a 1,000 feet or less below him spinning to the left. He made a 360 degree turn looking for the glider and could not see it and figured the pilot recovered from the spin and flew away. Examination of the glider by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed the glider collided with the ground in a nose down left wing attitude. The forward cabin area received structural damage, the left wing was pushed aft and the right wing was accelerated forward. The flaps on both wings were extended. The Pilot's Notes for the L-13 Sailplane states, the glider will stall at 30 knots with the flaps extended. No anomalies were noted with the airframe or flight controls.

Contributing factors

  • cause Airspeed — Not attained/maintained
  • cause Student pilot

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 200/05kt, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.