CHI04CA216 · Glasflugel H301
Glasflugel H301 · Accident: hard landing
From Sunflower Aerodrome Gliderport (SN76) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04CA216
- 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
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Glasflugel H301
- Aircraft type
- Glasflugel H301
- 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
- N25KD
- Operator
- Richard Stone
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sunflower Aerodrome Gliderport (SN76), Hutchinson, KSTo 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
- Landing
- 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
- Hard landing
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, low
- Pilot in command › Flare, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The glider sustained substantial damage when it landed hard during an off airport landing to a field. The pilot reported that he had been towed to 2,000 feet above ground level (agl). He was trying to find lift but he reported that the lift was "choppy and broken, difficult to center and work." His altitude was 1,500 feet agl when he was four miles northwest of the field. He attempted to fly back to the airport but he encountered turbulence and loss of lift. He decided to land in a field when his altitude was 800 feet agl. He lowered the landing gear and put in full flaps and set up for landing in a green field. When he recognized the field was a crop he turned toward a dirt field, but he encountered "heavy sink and turbulence." He reported that he leveled the wings prior to landing but landed hard. The glider skidded to a stop after traveling about 75-100 feet.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to change the landing area at a low altitude and the inadequate flare that resulted in a hard landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04CA216
- Event ID
- 20040830X01321
- Case number
- CHI04CA216
- 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, coordinates. 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: 606f06a4addc87d729efca6bf235c5c51fa9a12a0ec7f3a05c2d6eec16765e5b; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:54:46.642Z.