WPR10CA244 · Schweizer SGS136
Sierra Fliers Schweizer SGS136 · Accident: landing area overshoot
From Air Sailing Gliderport (NV23) to Air Sailing Gliderport (NV23)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10CA244
- 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
Schweizer SGS136
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer SGS136
- 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
- N3617E
- Operator
- Sierra Fliers
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Air Sailing Gliderport (NV23), Reno, NVTo Air Sailing Gliderport (NV23), Reno, NV
- 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
- 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
- Landing area overshoot
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot had two dual flights in an ASK 21 glider to check out the local area since he had never flown from this airport or from a dirt runway. He received an endorsement to fly the Schweizer SG136 solo after the two dual flights; however, he had no other time in this make and model, and his total time was 60 hours. The departure was from runway 17. He maneuvered for about 1 1/2 hours and then returned to land. He noted that the radios were garbled on occasion. He did not hear the transmission indicating that the winds had shifted, and now favored landing on runway 21. He overflew the airport and observed the tetrahedron and windsock, which indicated that the wind was about 13 knots straight down runway 21. He said that he erroneously concluded that the wind was lighter than it was and decided to land on runway 03, which was the only runway he had utilized during the day. The instructor had briefed him that the winds could reverse from morning to afternoon. He said that he turned base too short, and was very high. With the tailwind, he began to run out of runway. He slipped once, and then brought the glider to level. He was about 50 feet above ground level (agl) at the midpoint of the runway. He slipped hard again, and noted as he came out of the slip that he had turned the glider to the right. He flew between a hangar and a clubhouse, and the left wing tore a gash in a trailer with a glider in it. The left wing and tail sustained substantial damage. The pilot sustained cuts on both hands, abrasions on his right leg, and whiplash to his neck.
Probable cause
The student pilot’s selection of the wrong runway for the wind conditions and his failure to attain the proper touchdown point. Contributing to the accident was the student's lack of total experience, lack of experience in the operating area, lack of experience in the make and model, and an inadequate evaluation of the winds during landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10CA244
- Event ID
- 20100516X04050
- Case number
- WPR10CA244
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2010-05-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4f0795686758281974b697cda8b54f2375cbb3bd4267ef7260a644ac6921478d; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:06:05.398Z.