Atterrissage dur du Ka 6 près d'Ersigen après avoir rencontré des conditions de vent défavorables

Le 14 mai 1972, un Alexander Schleicher Ka 6 BR a été impliqué dans un incident près d'Ersigen, en Suisse. Le pilote, participant à un vol de compétition, a rencontré des conditions météorologiques difficiles, notamment des averses de neige et un front orageux. Lors de l'approche d'atterrissage, le pilote a mal jugé les conditions de vent, ce qui a entraîné un atterrissage dur après avoir tenté d'éviter un obstacle. Le pilote a subi des blessures mineures et le planeur a été gravement endommagé. Le rapport officiel cite le défaut de prise en compte des conditions de vent et les manœuvres à basse altitude comme facteurs contributifs.

1. Cross-country task flight: During a competition cross-country flight after aerotow release, the pilot continued along the task route in deteriorating weather with snow showers and a thunderstorm front.
2. Low altitude under front: Between Fraubrunnen and Utzensdorf the pilot descended with airbrakes to get under a thunderstorm front, reducing his altitude to about 700 m AGL and limiting landing options.
3. Poor cockpit visibility: At the time of the later landing, the canopy was reportedly heavily fogged, restricting the pilot’s forward view and leaving mainly left-side visibility.
4. Downwind landing approach: For the outlanding near Ersigen, the pilot flew the final approach with a tailwind toward a 400 m grass field, which he only recognized as problematic late in the approach.
5. Change of landing area: Realizing the tailwind and insufficient stopping distance, the pilot terminated the sideslip, retracted airbrakes, and extended the approach over a raised road toward a freshly mown 400 x 30 m field in the same direction.
6. Low-altitude avoidance turn: During landing on the mown field, the pilot initiated an avoidance maneuver at low height to miss a grass mower at the far end, bringing the left wingtip into contact with tall grass beside the field.
7. Crash - minor injury: The asymmetric drag from the wingtip strike led to loss of control and a hard ground impact, lightly injuring the pilot and heavily damaging the glider, with minor third-party damage.