Accident to the Glaser Dirks DG300 registered F-CFVR on 13/06/2023 at Léthuin
Ground loop during an off-field landing
This is a courtesy translation by the BEA of the Final Report on the Safety Investigation. As accurate as the translation may be, the original text in French is the work of reference.
Note: The following information is principally based on the pilot’s statement. This information has not been independently validated by the BEA.
1. History of the flight
The pilot took off from Buno-Bonnevaux aerodrome (Essonne) at 13:56. He planned to fly overhead Mortagne-au-Perche aerodrome (Orne), 140 km away, before returning to Buno-Bonnevaux.
He explained that the first part of the flight took place in excellent meteorological conditions. Close to Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), he chose a route slightly to the north to stay windward. The cloud base was well above FL 065 and he decided not to climb too high. He spiralled several times with other gliders in the Chartres area.
He flew overhead Mortagne-au-Perche at around 16:05 at an altitude of 2,100 m and started the return leg. A short time later, he observed an area in the shadow of clouds[1] to the north of his route and decided to change the direction of his flight path to the south. Although this flight path was not optimal because of the wind direction, the pilot believed he could reach Buno-Bonnevaux. He quickly observed that he was descending more than planned and was finding less and less uplift after Chartres where the cloud cover had disappeared.
At around 18:00, the pilot was struggling to find uplifts and considered the possibility of an off-field landing. He began to look for suitable fields when at a height of around 700 m. Few of the fields seemed suitable to him, as most were planted with tall crops. He nevertheless identified three possible fields. At this point he heard another pilot on the radio mention an uplift overhead a motorway service station immediately to his left: he looked for it, but was unable to locate it. He tried to find the fields he had previously identified, and had lost sight of. However, he was unable to locate them. At this point he was at a height of 500 m.
At a height of 350 m, the pilot saw a light yellow field to his left. He decided to land into the wind, aligning himself with the tractor tracks in the wheat, which did not seem very high to him.
On landing, the pilot noticed that the wheat was higher than he had thought. When the vertical stabilizer began to skim the wheat, the left wing dropped and touched the vegetation: the glider veered sharply to the left before coming to a standstill.
2. Additional information
2.1 Meteorological information
The meteorological conditions recorded at Chartres at 18:00 were CAVOK with a temperature of 28 °C, a north-easterly wind of 14 km/h with gusts of 30 km/h and a ceiling of 2,000 m.
The forecasts consulted by the pilot the previous day indicated the end of convective activity at around 18:30/19:00.
2.2 Pilot information
The 34-year-old pilot held a glider pilot licence issued on 15 May 2023. At the time of the accident, he had logged 211 flight hours including 51 hours on type. He was approved for the DG300 on 26 April 2023.