Accident to the Schleicher ASK21 registered F-CHIN on 10/04/2023 at Sarreguemines

The flying club, Aéroclub de Sarreguemines organised an instruction day for licensed glider pilots in anticipation of the new season. As the Rallye usually used by the club was no longer available after the first towing operation, the flying club pilots decided to use the DR400-180 registered F‑HIGM, acquired a few months previously, to carry out the subsequent towing operations. The pilot of the Rallye was not approved for the DR400, so another member of the flying club offered to carry out the tow flights.

Given that the DR400-180 had never been used for towing by the club out of this aerodrome, a lighter, single-seater glider was towed first, shortly before the accident flight, without incident. The second towing operation was with F-CHIN. It was the first time that the club had towed a two-seater glider with a DR400-180 out of this aerodrome. In order to take into account this risk, the pilots discussed the possibility of releasing the cable if there was a problem with gaining speed and it was decided that the instructor would have the glider controls for the take-off. However, the flight paths to be followed by the tug plane and the glider in the event of a rejected take-off were not discussed.

The tug pilot did not install the rear view mirror on the aeroplane, in order to, according to him, save time and he did not calculate performance.

During the take-off run, the tug plane did not manage to reach a sufficient speed on arriving level with the reference that the pilot usually used with the Rallye. As the tug pilot did not have a rear view mirror, he did not know at this point, whether the glider had taken off and asked the instructor to release the cable. The instructor released the cable and then, as he did not have visibility ahead of him, turned left at a height of around 10 m to land on the reciprocal QFU on aeroplane runway 05R. The glider stalled during the turn and then collided with the ground.