Pilot Debrief

CONWAY PHILIP J Glasair Super II SFT near Bay City, WI — 2022-09-06

Final reportERA22FA399
Sign in to save
Date
2022-09-06
Location
Bay City, WI, USA
Airport
RGK
Aircraft
CONWAY PHILIP J Glasair Super II SFT
Registration
N11HC
Category
Airplane
Highest injury
Fatal
Fatalities
2
Phase of flight
Approach

Probable cause

The continuation of a poorly-flown, unstabilized approach and the flight instructor’s failure to direct a discontinuance of that approach, resulting in a collision with terrain during turn to final.

NTSB narrative

The purpose of the flight was for the commercial pilot in the left seat to build flight time with an instructor so that he could be included on the owner’s insurance policy. This was the first flight to satisfy those requirements and the two accident pilots had not flown together previously. The flight instructor had 2 hours of flight experience in the Glasair; the commercial pilot-under-instruction had no flight experience in the airplane. Recorded radar and GPS data revealed that the airplane departed the home airport and airwork was performed for about 45 minutes. The flight then proceeded to another airport for traffic pattern work. The pilots entered the visual pattern and made four approaches without the airplane touching down. On the fifth approach, the airplane turned base-to-final about ½ to 1 mile sooner (tighter) than on the previous patterns. The accident approach was flown at a higher descent rate, bank angle, and pitch attitude than the previous approaches. The descent rate approached 2,500 fpm, the left bank angle approached 100°, and the pitch attitude was about 15° airplane-nose-down. During the final turn, a positive normal load factor was observed, between 1 and 2 g just before the end of the recorded data, and shortly before ground impact, indicating that the airplane did not stall before the crash. The lateral acceleration during the final turn was about 0.3 g, which was consistent with a side slip (forward slip) maneuver, commonly used when an airplane is high on approach. An examination of the airframe and powerplant revealed no evidence of a mechanical malfunction or failure that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot flying at the time of the accident could not be determined; however, it is apparent that the flight instructor allowed an unstabilized approach to proceed beyond the point where a safe recovery was not possible. Had the instructor either discontinued the poor approach or directed the commercial pilot-under-instruction to do so, the accident would have been prevented.

Analysis

Primary failure mode
Loss of control
First missed decision gate
The decision to initiate a tighter turn in the traffic pattern could have been reconsidered.

NTSB coding

Evidence available

  • ADS-B / radar
  • Photos
  • 22 docket documents
View NTSB final reportView NTSB docket

Docket documents22

Related mishaps