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| Date: | Monday 22 August 2016 |
| Time: | 14:45 |
| Type: |  Grob G-109 |
| Owner/operator: | Karlskoga Segelflygklubb |
| Registration: | SE-UDM |
| MSN: | 6044 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Karlskoga Airport (KSK/ESKK) -
 Sweden
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | Karlskoga Airport (KSK/ESKK) |
| Karlskoga Airport (KSK/ESKK) | |
| Investigating agency: | SHK |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The aircraft came up short and landed in front of the runway. The glider was severely damaged in the process.
The pilot, who was an instructor, intended to perform a familiarization with the aircraft type from the right hand seat. The aircraft has an air brake lever positioned on the left side of the left seat, and on the right side of the right seat. The pilot had only flown aircrafts with conventional layout, i.e, holding the control stick in the right hand and the air brake in the left hand.
For this reason he felt the need to practice flying in the right seat with the reverse control layout. He was accompanied by a glider instructor who occupied the left seat as a safety pilot and acted as student during the flight.
The flight was initially normal until short final. At a speed of 120 km/h the pilot experienced an abnormal descent rate and came below the glideslope. He tried to correct by changing the pitch and managing the air-brake which resulted in loss of lift followed by a hard touch down.
The aircraft came to rest about 250 meters before the threshold of the grassstrip. The pilot has not been able to tell with certainty in what sequence the flight controls and airbrakes where used.
The safety pilot in the left seat, has stated that the approach was quite turbulent before the runway threshold next to the forest edge, where a strong down draft occurred at a height of 20 to 30 meters.
The safety pilot has confirmed that the speed on final was correct. The sequence of events happened very quickly and he did not get the impression that the pilot confused the flight controls. When he realized that an accident was about to happen it was too late for him to intervene.
There is no other reasonable explanation for the rapid altitude loss than confusion of the air brake and stick, which in turn is due to unfamiliarity with the placement of controls.
An increasing sink rate at low altitude is normally compensated by closing the air brake and pulling the flight control stick backwards to take advantage of the increased glide ratio.
If seated in the left seat, this means that the left-hand is moved forward and the right hand rearward. For the same maneuver seated in the right seat the hands are moved in the opposite directions.
When changing seat from left to right, the controls are thus reversed, and a risk of confusion arises.
The accident was caused by the following factor:
The pilot’s inexperience to maneuver the airplane from the right seat has probably caused an unintentional confusion of the controls.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
BFU16-1224-DX
See explanation below.
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 21-Jun-2025 06:36 | Gerhardt | Updated [Registration, Cn, Phase, Nature, Destination airport, Source, ] |
| 21-Jun-2025 06:39 | ASN | Updated [Operator, Total occupants, Location, Nature, Departure airport, Narrative, Category, Accident report, ] |
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