Accident de Club Libelle 205 lors d'un lancement au treuil à Samedan entraînant un décès
Le 12 août 1997, un Glasflügel Club Libelle 205 Mod a subi un accident mortel lors d'un lancement au treuil à l'aéroport de Samedan, en Suisse. Le pilote, un ressortissant suisse avec une expérience de vol significative, a tenté un lancement au treuil dans des conditions de vent variables. Lors de la transition vers la montée, le planeur a décroché et s'est retourné, s'écrasant au sol en position inversée. Le planeur a été détruit à l'impact, et le pilote a subi des blessures mortelles. L'enquête a confirmé que l'accident était dû à une perte de contrôle suite à un décrochage pendant le lancement au treuil.
- Winch launch takeoff: During a winch launch from grass runway 21 at Samedan, the glider lifted off and initially climbed away in a relatively flat attitude.
- Variable light wind: Launch took place in variable wind conditions up to about 5 kt, which were not optimal for winch launching regarding wind direction and air density.
- Limited winch experience: The pilot had relatively low recent winch-launch experience on this specific glider type, and had previously been cautioned about transitioning to climb with too low a speed.
- Transition to steep climb: As the glider, already climbing shallowly with evidently insufficient speed, entered the transition to the steeper winch climb, the pilot pitched it up as for a normal winch launch.
- Stall and roll-off: At about 50 m above ground, the airflow stalled during the transition to climb, the glider became unstable, rolled left, and went out of control.
- Inverted ground impact: The glider tipped over the left wing and impacted the hard-surface runway inverted, nose first, and was destroyed.
- Crash - fatal: The crash during the winch launch fatally injured the pilot.