What happened
On June 17, 2011, at approximately 13:27 local time, a Schleicher Ka 6 glider departed from Laucha airfield for a training flight via winch launch. After initially searching for thermals to the west of the airfield, the pilot moved the search to the south at an altitude of approximately 150 to 200 meters, performing right-hand circuits.
Witnesses observed the aircraft enter a spiral dive after several circuits without gaining altitude. Following two to two and a half turns, the glider entered a spin and impacted a rapeseed field south of the airfield in a nearly vertical descent. The pilot sustained fatal injuries, and the aircraft was destroyed. The impact sequence began with the aircraft's nose, followed by the right wing and then the left wing hitting the ground.
The investigation
The BFU investigation focused on the pilot's training background and the aircraft's flight characteristics. The pilot was a student in the third stage of training, having completed the theoretical portion of his license in late 2010. While he had accumulated over 32 hours of total flight time across eight different glider types, the investigation noted that he had only flown the Schleicher Ka 6 three times previously, with the last flight occurring in September 2010. On the morning of the accident, the pilot had flown a K 8, a model considered more forgiving and with different control sensitivities than the Ka 6.
Medical examinations of the pilot revealed no evidence of acute or chronic illness, nor any influence from drugs or alcohol. The investigation also examined the aircraft's maintenance history, noting the glider had undergone its annual inspection in May 2011.
Findings
- The primary cause of the accident was that the minimum airspeed was undershot during a circuit, causing the aircraft to enter an aerodynamically stalled state.
- The pilot failed to execute recovery maneuvers to exit the resulting spin.
- Contributing factors included the pilot's limited experience with this specific aircraft model and the frequent switching between different glider types during his training, which may have hindered his ability to adapt to the specific handling characteristics of the Ka 6.