Accident to the Glaser Dirks DG600 registered F-CIEA on 27/04/2022 at Seyne-les-Alpes
Elevator blocked in nose-down position during winch take-off, collision with ground
The day before the accident, when assembling the tail plane, the pilot dit not correctly rig the pitch control with the elevator. The investigation showed that during the rigging operation, it is possible not to correctly engage the roller (connected to the control) in the guide attached to the elevator.
When carrying out the before flight checks, all the control surfaces seemed to respond to the inputs. The pilot had, however, noticed abnormal stiffness when moving the pitch control, but thought that the position of the trim at the nose-down limit was probably the cause of this. During the winch take-off, the elevator moved into the nose-down position without the pilot making any input on the stick. The glider collided with the ground. The winch cable separated from the glider at the time of impact without the pilot having the time to control its release.