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CHI88DER14 · Homebuilt WOODSTOCK

5 Sept 1988 · Mankato, MN, United States

Homebuilt WOODSTOCK · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering

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Event

NTSB case
CHI88DER14
Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
Completed
API-reported fatalities
1 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
0
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
General aviation
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Visual Meteorological Cond

Homebuilt WOODSTOCK

Aircraft type
Homebuilt WOODSTOCK
Category
Glider
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
N369DK
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded
Aircraft age
Not recorded
Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
Part 91: General Aviation
Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
Maneuvering
First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
Airframe, component or system failure
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Aerobatics, performed
  • Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
  • Wing › Failure, total

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE HOMEBUILT EXPERIMENTAL GLIDER EXPERIENCED AN INFLIGHT STRUCTURAL FAILURE OF BOTH WINGS WHICH SUBSEQUENTLY RESULTED IN A LOSS OF CONTROL AND IMPACT WITH THE TERRAIN. EXAMINATION REVEALED THE WINGS FAILED DUE TO OVERLOAD AT WING MIDSPAN NEAR THE SPOILERS. RECOVERY FROM LOOPS UTILIZING THE SPOILERS AS AIR BRAKES WILL CAUSE AN INCREASED BENDING MOMENT OUTBOARD OF THE SPOILERS AND REDUCE WING STRENGTH IN THE SPOILER BOX AREA. THE PLT HAD 35 HRS OF FLT TIME IN THE ACFT, AND HAD LOGGED PERFORMANCE OF LOOPS IN HIS PLT LOGBOOK. AEROBATICS ARE PROHIBITED IN THIS ACFT.

Probable cause

AIRCRAFT STRUCTURAL FAILURE DUE TO OVERLOAD INDUCED BY PILOT IN THE PERFORMANCE OF UNAUTHORIZED MANEUVERS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI88DER14
Event ID
20001213X26779
Case number
CHI88DER14
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
  • Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
  • Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 7e29c302f989de1deb5e2a215b8cf1df247a1d8dbf83cf0489c84614263df484; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:34:30.939Z.