Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Warren-Sugarbush Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Warren, Vermont 05674
Wednesday, June 27, 2007 16:30 EDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The LET Super Blanik L23 flight instructor and a student pilot were towed to 2,700 feet above the airport, where the student pilot performed a series of maneuvers. Afterwards, the student pilot descended the glider toward a midfield downwind entry, about 1,500 feet above the airport. While descending, turbulence from an approaching rain shower increased, so the flight instructor took the controls. The flight instructor flew the remainder of the downwind leg, followed by a base leg, at 70 knots with full spoilers deployed since the glider would not descend. Turning onto final, while heading into the wind, the glider experienced an "extremely strong" sink rate, from which, the flight instructor could not recover. The glider subsequently landed hard about 100 feet short of the runway causing substantial damage. Shortly after the landing, light rain fell on the airport, and there was thunder in the distance. Ten minutes later, there was lightning 2 miles southeast of the airport, and the winds dropped and remained at less than 10 knots the rest of the afternoon. The flight instructor reported over 9,600 hours of flight time with 3,700 hours as a pilot in command of gliders.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The glider's inadvertent encounter with windshear. A factor was the outflow from a nearby thunderstorm.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 6/27/2007 |
| Event Day of the Week | Wednesday |
| Time of Event | 1630 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Daylight Time |
| Event City | Warren |
| Event State | VERMONT |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 05674 |
| Event Date Year | 2007 |
| Event Date Month | 6 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 440700N |
| Event Location Longitude | 0724936W |
| Event Location Airport | Warren-Sugarbush |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | 037 |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1651 Eastern Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 70 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | MPV |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | -- |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 12 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | EDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Scattered |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 21 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 240 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 10 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 24 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.9 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 2 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 22333 |
| NTSB Notification Source | NEROC |
| NTSB Notification Date | -- |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 31 2007 7:09AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\johb |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Portland, ME |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N8022 |
| NTSB Number | NYC07CA151 |
| 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 | -- |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | LET |
| Aircraft Model | Super Blanik L-23 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 938022 |
| 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 | -- |
| Date of Last Inspection | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | -- |
| ELT Activated | -- |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | -- |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Sugarbush Soaring Association |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Warren |
| Aircraft Owner State | VT |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 05674 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| 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) | Instructional |
| Second Pilot on Board | -- |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | 0B7 |
| Departure City | Warren |
| Departure State | VT |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | -- |
| Departure Time Zone | EDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | dest & departure same, accident can occur anywhere |
| Destination Airport Code | -- |
| Destination City | -- |
| Destination State | -- |
| Destination Country | -- |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Sep 26 2007 9:41AM |
| User who most recently changed record | MUZD |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 22 |
| Runway Length | 2300 |
| Runway Width | 30 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |