The Soaring Safety Foundation (SSF) is the Training and Safety arm of the Soaring Society of America (SSA). Our mission is to provide instructors and pilots with the tools needed to teach/learn both the stick & rudder skills and the Aeronautical Decision Making skills needed to safely fly a glider. We also provide information and analysis of incident and accident trends in order to develop better training tools.

 

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The Soaring Incident Database is now available to help pilots, safety officers, clubs, and commercial operators develop new programs that can help prevent incidents from becoming major accidents. See more incidents by searching the database or register a new incident.

Region Pilot Certificate Pilot Injuries Passenger Injuries Type of Flight Launch Method Type of Aircraft
East CFI None None Instructional Aero Tow ASK 21
Incident Activity Damage to Aircraft Damage to Canopy Incident Date Incident Time Weather SSA Member
Flight None 2020-06-06 1800-2000 Not a Factor Yes
Incident Description The pre-solo student was making their 2nd flight of the year. THe student entered downwind about 500 ft above the normal pattern entry altitude and was not making any attempt to increase the descent rate. I intervened and demonstrated how the use of full spoilers and 10 kts of extra speed would dramatically increase the descent rate. After returning the flight controls to the student we turned base and I realized that we were now low. Closing the spoilers and heading directly for the runway threshold allowed us to regain the glideslope about 200 ft AGL just short of the threshold.
Other Comments I was distracted while demonstrating the full spoiler descent maneauver and lost situational awareness. Demonstrating this maneauver on base instead of downwind would have been more effective.


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