CEN10LA035 · Blanik L-13
Cleveland Soaring Society Blanik L-13 · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin during initial climb
From Geauga County Airport (7G8) to Geauga County Airport (7G8)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN10LA035
- 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
Blanik L-13
- Aircraft type
- Blanik L-13
- 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
- N1142
- Operator
- Cleveland Soaring Society
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Geauga County Airport (7G8), Middlefield, OHTo Geauga County Airport (7G8), Middlefield, OH
- 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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 › Action/decision
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, who was a certificated flight instructor (CFI), reported that he was following the student pilot on the controls during the takeoff climb. He observed the tow plane rock its wings indicating to the glider to “wave off”. The CFI took control of the glider and stated, “It’s my airplane.” He released the tow line, turned 180 degrees to return to the airport, and lowered the nose to increase aircraft energy. The student felt they were too low to the ground and panicked. The student pilot grabbed the controls and pulled back on the stick. The CFI could not overpower the student on the controls and the airplane started to spin left. He picked up the left wing by applying opposite rudder. The glider impacted a tractor dealer’s parking lot. The inspection of the glider revealed that it sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and wings. No pre-impact anomalies were noted.
Probable cause
The student pilot's improper control inputs which resulted in the inadvertent stall of the glider.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN10LA035
- Event ID
- 20091102X00857
- Case number
- CEN10LA035
- 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: 018ec3ef3d4a0a545e4a52503e8d65434db83003a2c2337573e2c9f77b3b1867; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:27:42.950Z.