AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT REPORT

FLUTTER - BE VERY AFRAID

- JIM DAVIS

This report is to promote aviation safety and not to establish legal liability.

The CAA's report contains padding, repetition, poor English and incompetence. In the interest of clarity and readability I have corrected and paraphrased extensively.

Aircraft: powered glider Pipistrel D.O.O Taurus

Date of Accident: 10 August 2012

Time of Accident: 11:06Z

Registration: ZU-GAN Pilot-in-command Licence Type: Glider / PPL Age: 55

Licence Valid: Yes

Pilot-in-command Flying Experience: Total Flying

80.2 Hours on Type 80.2 Hours

Last point of departure: El Mirador (FALQ)

Next point of intended landing: El Mirador (FALQ)

Location of the accident: Game reserve in Winterton.

Meteorological Information: CAVOK wind 350/04

Number of people on board: 1 + 0

Number of people injured: 0

Number of people killed: 1

SYNOPSIS

History of Flight

Three witnesses all made substantially the same statements. They saw the wings of the aircraft flexing and oscillating up and down along the entire span and it was also longitudinally unstable. They also noticed the wheel bay doors opening and closing in time with the pitching oscillations.

The chute was deployed but failed to blossom and appeared to suffer shroud line failure. The resultant drag appeared to pitch the aircraft's nose up; it dropped its right wing and dived vertically into the ground.

The engine, airframe and propeller had done only 15 hours since new.

The pilot was fatally injured. The post mortem found multiple rib fractures, lacerations of the heart, fracture of the spine at three places, crushed cauda equine at lumbar spine No.2. Cause of death was a blunt trauma to the chest.