GAA17CA456 · Pdps PZL-Bielsko SZD 55-1
Pdps PZL-Bielsko SZD 55-1 · Accident: abnormal runway contact during landing
From Bahnson Airport (43NC) to Bahnson Airport (43NC)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA456
- 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
Pdps PZL-Bielsko SZD 55-1
- Aircraft type
- Pdps PZL Bielsko SZD-55
- 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
- N817V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bahnson Airport (43NC), Mocksville, NCTo Bahnson Airport (43NC), Mocksville, NC
- Aircraft age
- About 25 years (built 1992)
- 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
- Abnormal runway contact
- 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 glider pilot reported that, during landing in gusting wind conditions, the glider bounced, so the pilot added "more spoiler" to help the glider settle back onto the ground. He added that a wind gust "rotated" the glider to the left, and the glider bounced about 3 to 4 ft. After the second bounce, the glider landed hard "with the nose yawed to the left."
The glider sustained substantial damage to the fuselage.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the glider that would have precluded normal operation.
A review of recorded data from the automated weather observation station located 16 nautical miles east of the accident airport reported that, about 40 minutes before the accident, the wind was from 30° at 17 knots, gusting to 20 knots. The pilot reported that the wind was from 360° at 15 knots, gusting to 20 knots. The glider landed on runway 1.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper landing flare in gusting wind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA456
- Event ID
- 20170731X61631
- Case number
- GAA17CA456
- 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: 5bd795570c17ea9720323d82217dbc24f2d492d315360d5691e6a4c2af6acaa0; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:37:52.912Z.