Un autogire au décollage percute un SZD-51 en finale au seuil

Un élève à son premier vol sur un SZD-51-1 Junior a été grièvement blessé et le planeur détruit quand un autogire MTOsport au décollage est monté dans sa trajectoire en finale à Waldeck. Son rotor a sectionné la moitié de l'aile droite, et le planeur s'est retourné et écrasé ; l'autogire a été légèrement endommagé, son pilote indemne. Aucun n'a vu l'autre à temps : l'autogire décollait hors zone autorisée, d'un emplacement masqué par les arbres, invisible pour les deux, tandis que l'élève était absorbé par le type nouveau. Cause : contact visuel insuffisant entre les deux.

1. First solo on a new type: A student pilot, on his first flight on the single-seat SZD-51-1 Junior, was aerotowed to about 1000 m at Waldeck to get familiar with the type, then set up to land on runway 19.
2. Attention on the unfamiliar type: On final the student fixed on the runway-19 touchdown point and concentrated on flying a safe landing in the type new to him; the touchdown point stayed clear to him until the collision.
3. Autogyro launching from a screened spot: An MTOsport autogyro was departing for Kassel-Calden from an unapproved area before the runway-19 threshold; trees screened it, in the glider's blind angle and hindering its own lookout.
4. No mutual visual contact: Neither pilot saw the other in time; the student radioed his position but recalled no acknowledgement, and the autogyro pilot heard no warning. The ground controller could not intervene.
5. Rotor severs the glider's wing: As the autogyro climbed (~2 m, ~100 km/h) it came up under and in front of the glider; at 3-4 m the glider's right wing entered the rotor disc and about half the wing was severed.
6. Glider inverted; both aircraft damaged: The glider rolled 90-120 degrees and struck the ground inverted, destroyed, with the student seriously injured. The autogyro rolled ~100 m and landed lightly damaged, its pilot uninjured.