WPR11LA317 · Schweizer SGS 2-32
Wave Soaring Adventures Schweizer SGS 2-32 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Ferndale Airfield (53U) to Ferndale Airfield (53U)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR11LA317
- 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
- 1 · 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 SGS 2-32
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer SGS-2
- 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
- N591CC
- Operator
- Wave Soaring Adventures
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ferndale Airfield (53U), Bigfork, MTTo Ferndale Airfield (53U), Bigfork, MT
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot examiner reported that the purpose of the flight was to renew the pilot’s flight instructor certificate; the accident flight was the second flight of the day. Prior to the accident flight, the examiner briefed the tow plane pilot and the pilot receiving the glider check ride that the next flight would be a simulated rope break during takeoff at an altitude of about 260 feet above the ground. The examiner reported that during takeoff, he released the tow rope at 260 feet and noticed that the glider’s airspeed was slowing. He informed the pilot to increase the airspeed and bank the glider until it was lined up with runway. The examiner stated that before the glider was aligned with the runway, the pilot made a quick control stick movement to the right, which caused an accelerated stall. Multiple witnesses observed the glider depart the airport uneventfully via a tow airplane. As the glider ascended through about 200 to 300 feet, it appeared to release from the tow rope. Shortly after, the glider was observed entering a steep right bank and descended into the ground. A postaccident examination of the airframe revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed and his excessive control inputs during a simulated rope break while taking off, which resulted in an accelerated aerodynamic stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11LA317
- Event ID
- 20110708X10326
- Case number
- WPR11LA317
- 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: 89f6d2e9e7887499b611d9d62a3fc5db617810888acb1879af4405420017cb86; retrieved 2026-09-13T21:32:43.361Z.