WPR09LA381 · Schempp Hirth DISCUS CS
Schempp Hirth DISCUS CS · Accident: glider tow event during initial climb
From Williams Gliderport (CN12) to Williams Gliderport (CN12)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09LA381
- 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
Schempp Hirth DISCUS CS
- Aircraft type
- Schempp Hirth DISCUS CS
- 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
- N7HV
- Operator
- Richard M Parker · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Williams Gliderport (CN12), Williams, CATo Williams Gliderport (CN12), Williams, CA
- 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
- Glider tow event
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After taking off, the lead pilot in a dual tow elected to perform a precautionary release as a result of a "slack-line" condition. The trail pilot, realizing that his tow rope was now under the lead pilot's right wing, released his tow rope and immediately turned right. Without sufficient altitude or airspeed to return to the airport, the trail pilot tried to level the glider's wings, but could not before the right wing tip impacted terrain. The glider sustained substantial damage to its right wing and empennage.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance with terrain after intentionally releasing from the tow plane at a low altitude during the initial climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09LA381
- Event ID
- 20090804X13022
- Case number
- WPR09LA381
- 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. 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: b649d772403748beffb268ef3c88d2902a8987d73bd9538c2db0c8423d49b82e; retrieved 2026-09-15T12:09:25.246Z.