CEN12LA490 · Smith APPLEBAY ZUNI II
Smith APPLEBAY ZUNI II · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin on approach
From Richmond Field (69G) to Richmond Field (69G)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12LA490
- 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
Smith APPLEBAY ZUNI II
- Aircraft type
- Smith APPLEBAY ZUNI
- 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
- N1ZV
- Operator
- Wasilewski Stephen G
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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 › 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 pilot reported that the takeoff and tow to 3,000 feet above ground level (agl) was normal. The pilot released the glider from the tow airplane about 2 miles northwest of the airport. He was unable to achieve the necessary lift, and, as the glider lost altitude, he started flying back toward the airport and proceeded toward the initial point for landing on the runway. As the pilot flew the glider on the downwind pattern leg, he realized that he was not going to be able to complete the traffic pattern. He attempted to clear the tree line that crossed the downwind leg, but the glider hit the trees and subsequently impacted terrain. A witness reported that the glider's altitude was about 125 to 150 feet agl when it was on the downwind leg and that its airspeed was too low. The witness added that the glider continued to slow as it turned to the base leg, at which point, the left wing stalled, and then the glider pitched down nearly vertical and completed about 1/2 spin before it disappeared behind the trees. A postaccident examination of the airframe revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The glider pilot’s failure to maintain sufficient altitude and airspeed while turning to the base leg of the traffic pattern, which resulted in a stall/spin and impact with trees and terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12LA490
- Event ID
- 20120730X43449
- Case number
- CEN12LA490
- 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: 775786ddae2c73b5f7cd1a60be0abdb21d9a78eebb9ceaca4be758dc9069072f; retrieved 2026-09-15T19:06:53.245Z.