Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

On July 17, 1998, approximately 1300 mountain daylight time, a Schweizer SGU 2-22E, N9920J, was substantially damaged when it landed hard at Freemont County Airport, Canon City, Colorado. The private pilot sustained a serious injury, but his passenger was not injured. The aircraft was being operated as a personal flight under Title 14 CFR Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed. The flight originated approximately 4 minutes before the accident.

According to the pilot's accident report, the glider was launched by a ground vehicle using a 1,200 foot rope. After achieving an altitude of 850 feet agl, he disconnected the tow rope and turned into the traffic pattern for landing. While on a left downwind leg for runway 11 at an altitude of 650 feet, he demonstrated a stall to his passenger, resulting in a loss of 75 feet. He then noticed a 500 foot per minute sink rate had developed, and decided to cut short the downwind and base legs. The sink rate continued to increase and he lowered the nose to maintain a safe airspeed. Although the glider was low on final approach, airspeed was more than 50 mph. When he deployed the spoilers, the glider struck the ground. He thought the glider had landed short and the main landing gear had struck the runway lip. The pilot sustained a compression fracture of a lumbar vertebra (L-1), and lost consciousness momentarily.

The passenger corroborated the pilot's statement, but said he saw the airspeed drop below 45 knots as the glider was flared for landing. There were five other witnesses who gave similar accounts, corroborating the pilot's statement.

Postaccident examination revealed that the landing gear axle and structure were bent, and one rudder cable was separated. The pilot's misjudgment of distance/altitude and his premature deployment of the spoilers, resulting in a undershoot and hard landing.