CHI08CA136 · Schleicher AS-K13
Schleicher AS-K13 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Richmond Field (69G) to Richmond Field (69G)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI08CA136
- 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
Schleicher AS-K13
- Aircraft type
- Schleicher AS-K13
- 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
- N24BS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Richmond Field (69G), Gregory, MITo Richmond Field (69G), Gregory, MI
- 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
- Initial climb
- Defining eventThe 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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 pilot reported that before hooking-up to the tow plane he reviewed the preflight checklist and verified that the flight controls were connected and unobstructed. The initial takeoff roll was normal with the glider becoming airborne prior to the tow plane. The glider pilot applied forward stick pressure to remain in ground effect and in proper position relative to the tow plane, which was still accelerating on its takeoff roll. After the tow plane became airborne the glider began to climb above proper tow position. The glider pilot stated that he "could not push the stick all the way forward to lower the nose" and the glider continued to climb out of tow position. The glider pilot released from the towline when he no longer had the tow plane in sight. After releasing from the towline, the glider resumed a level pitch attitude and began to decelerate. The pilot selected full nose down trim, in response to his limited pitch control. The glider continued to decelerate and subsequently landed hard on the turf runway. The main landing gear and aft fuselage tubular support structure was substantially damaged during the hard landing. Both wingtips were damaged and there were several fabric tears on the left wing and fuselage. After exiting the glider, the pilot found his handheld communication radio on the cockpit floor. The pilot said that during takeoff the radio must have fallen off his seat onto the cockpit floor, restricting the movement of the control stick. The pilot reported that the accident might have been prevented if the glider had a method to secure a handheld radio and the preflight checklists included a task to identify if there were any unrestrained items in the cockpit area.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to adequately secure his handheld radio prior to takeoff, which resulted in a restriction of the flight control stick and loss of control. Contributing to the accident was the stall/mush flight condition encountered after the glider released from the towline.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI08CA136
- Event ID
- 20080606X00809
- Case number
- CHI08CA136
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 4b1f211b6c283ed9610ec3f02481d78002d01daeddaf0eaa38834365626ad078; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:44:19.197Z.