Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Franconia Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Franconia, New Hampshire 03580
Sunday, May 13, 2007 15:30 EDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
After about 2.5 hours of soaring in the Burkhart Grob Flugzeugbau G-103 glider, the pilot returned to the airport and entered the traffic pattern at 1,200 feet with a "small amount" of spoilers deployed. He turned onto the downwind leg at 800 feet, and used "more spoilers" to descend to 500 feet. He then turned onto the base leg, and at 300 feet and 60 knots airspeed, he turned onto the final leg of the approach and aligned the glider with the runway. He immediately felt the glider had entered rising air, so he performed a full slip with the spoilers deployed; however, the glider did not descend significantly. The pilot waited for the glider to exit the rising air mass, and it continued to descend moderately until about mid-field, when it descended rapidly. The glider touched down about 3/4 down the runway and bounced back into the air. Due to a pile of debris at the end of the runway, the pilot elected to close the spoilers, overfly the debris, and land the glider in the treetops ahead at a slow speed. Before he could accomplish his plan, a crosswind blew the glider towards a tree. The left wing contacted the tree, and the glider subsequently impacted the ground.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The pilot's failure to obtain the proper touchdown point. A factor in the accident was an encounter with an updraft while on approach.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 5/13/2007 |
| Event Day of the Week | Sunday |
| Time of Event | 1530 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Daylight Time |
| Event City | Franconia |
| Event State | NEW HAMPSHIRE |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 03580 |
| Event Date Year | 2007 |
| Event Date Month | 5 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 441145N |
| Event Location Longitude | 0714458W |
| Event Location Airport | Franconia Airport |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | 1B5 |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 0.5 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1452 Eastern Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 56 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | HIE |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 1074 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 14 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | EDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | -- |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 13 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -6 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 340 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 10 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 16 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | -- |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Minor |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | 2 |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | 2 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 21759 |
| NTSB Notification Source | Pilot |
| NTSB Notification Date | -- |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jun 27 2007 1:15PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\lema |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Portland FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N39783 |
| NTSB Number | NYC07CA118 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Burkhart Grob Flugzeugbau |
| Aircraft Model | G103 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 3805 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | -- |
| Aircraft Category | Glider |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | -- |
| Number of Engines | 0 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | Jul 1 2006 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | 3070 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Franconia Soaring Association, Inc. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Concord |
| Aircraft Owner State | NH |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | -- |
| Operator is an individual? | Yes |
| Operator Name | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | -- |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | -- |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | -- |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Personal |
| Second Pilot on Board | -- |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | 1B5 |
| Departure City | Franconia |
| Departure State | NH |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | -- |
| Departure Time Zone | EDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | dest & departure same, accident can occur anywhere |
| Destination Airport Code | 1B5 |
| Destination City | -- |
| Destination State | -- |
| Destination Country | -- |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jun 15 2007 7:43PM |
| User who most recently changed record | MUZD |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 36 |
| Runway Length | 2305 |
| Runway Width | 150 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |