Aterrizaje en campo del Grunau Baby II cerca de Holderbank resulta en daños significativos
El 9 de junio de 1964, un planeador Grunau Baby II realizó un aterrizaje en campo cerca de Holderbank, Suiza. El piloto, que participaba en un curso de entrenamiento, encontró descendentes inesperadas que llevaron a la decisión de aterrizar fuera del aeródromo designado. A pesar de seleccionar un área de aterrizaje adecuada, la aproximación se realizó con viento de cola, resultando en un aterrizaje duro y daños significativos a la aeronave. El piloto salió ileso, pero el Grunau Baby II fue considerado una pérdida total. La investigación señaló un error de juicio del piloto en la dirección del viento durante el aterrizaje.
- Cross-country soaring: During a training week, the pilot launched from Birrfeld in a Grunau Baby II to attempt a five-hour soaring flight and had been airborne for over three hours.
- Strong downdraft encountered: While flying near Wildegg-Holderbank at about 500 m above ground, the glider suddenly encountered strong sink of approximately 4 m/s.
- Low experience level: The young pilot had limited gliding experience, with about 19.5 hours total and only 6.5 hours in the preceding days of the course.
- Abandons return to field: After attempting to head back toward Birrfeld, the pilot realized he no longer had sufficient height to clear the Kestenberg ridge and decided to perform an outlanding instead.
- Tailwind landing approach: The pilot selected a generally suitable field but flew the approach in the wrong direction, landing with a tailwind and in a slipping attitude, apparently without using visible smoke from nearby chimneys to determine wind direction.
- Unstable touchdown: Because of the tailwind and slipping approach, the glider touched down too fast and in poor attitude, leading to loss of control on ground contact.
- Outlanding - damage: The glider broke apart on the off-field landing near Holderbank, sustaining 70–80% structural damage and being written off, while the pilot remained uninjured.