Regis#: 186P Make/Model: EXP Description: AVIA STROITEL AC-5M GLIDER
Date: 05/19/2012 Time: 2253

Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Fatal Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Substantial

LOCATION
City: KINGSTON State: NV Country: US

We have a lot on the airport at Kingston and was there this weekend for a birthday party. When a glider flies at Kingston, it’s a bit of an event with numerous people watching.

I spoke with a few eye-witnesses that stated that they thought that he was trying to bail out from a very low altitude. They also stated that the FAA/NTSB told them that since it was an experimental that they weren’t interested in looking at it. Another witness said that well over half an hour after he watched the takeoff he heard a loud noise stepped out of his cabin to see the glider hit at a very steep angle. The canopy has not been found.

The pilot’s son was at the airport today practicing landings in his father’s Citabria before taking it to Truckee, California. The wreckage was in the open hangar but I didn’t get a chance to speak with him before having to leave. One of his friends there said that the father had written in his logbook that he was having rudder problems on a previous flight.

I was really looking forward to flying gliders with Frank this summer and am saddened by his loss.

Jim D