48.4 hours !?

NTSB Identification: LAX05LA131
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Wednesday, April 06, 2005 in Mokuleia, HI
Aircraft: Schweizer SGS 2-32, registration: N693U
Injuries: 1 Fatal, 2 Minor.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain
errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final
report has been completed.

On April 6, 2005, at 1300 Hawaiian standard time, a Schweizer SGS 2-32
glider, N693U, impacted mountainous terrain 0.4 miles south of the
Dillingham Airfield, Mokuleia, Hawaii. The commercial glider pilot was
fatally injured and the two passengers sustained minor injuries. The
glider sustained substantial damaged. Sailplane Ride Adventures, Inc.,
owned and operated the glider under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91 as
a scenic sailplane ride. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed,
and a flight plan had not been filed for the local flight. The
20-minute scenic flight was in the air approximately 17 minutes.

According to an interview summary provided by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), the passengers reported that they were circling
around a hill and thought that they were returning to the airport. The
glider crossed over a ridge to a valley to look at a waterfall. The
glider turned left then right in a gentle but accelerating manner. The
glider also pitched up and down, and the passengers felt like they were
falling. The pilot announced that they were "going in." The glider
impacted trees and terrain, and came to rest upside down.

Another witness, who was a glider pilot flying at the time of the
accident, observed the accident glider behind her, heading east
approximately 400-500 feet above the ridge. She checked back on the
glider's position relative to hers and noticed the glider "turn right
(toward the ridge) and its nose come up slightly." The glider turned
"approximately 45 degrees to the right, then turned back to the left
and immediately entered a spin to the left." The witness reported that
the glider rotated twice before it entered a spin to the right. The
witness then lost sight of the glider behind trees before it completed
a rotation to the right.

The accident site was at 21 degrees 34 minutes 21 seconds north
latitude and 158 degrees 12 minutes and 54 seconds west longitude at an
elevation of approximately 1,000 feet msl. The glider came to rest on
the east side of a gulch that cut through the east-west running
ridgeline situated to the south of Dillingham Airfield. Review of
photographs of the accident site revealed that the glider fuselage came
to rest inverted with the left and right inboard wings intact. The left
and right outboard wing sections were detached; however, the left
outboard wing section remained attached to the main wreckage via flight
control cables. The right outboard wing section came to rest
approximately 40 feet from the main wreckage at the base of freshly
broken trees. The wing leading edges displayed circular indentations
similar in size to the diameter of the surrounding trees. The tail
section folded over the belly of the airplane.

The glider was recovered to Dillingham Airfield on April 8, 2005.
According to the FAA inspectors that responded to the accident site,
flight control continuity was confirmed from the cockpit to the flight
control surfaces.

The pilot received his student pilot certificate on March 16, 2005. On
March 24, 2005, he received his private pilot certificate with a glider
rating. On March 26, 2005, he obtained his commercial pilot certificate
with a glider rating. According to the pilot's logbook, as of April 5,
2005 (the day before the accident), he accumulated a total of 48.4
hours of flight time, of which 31.2 hours were as pilot-in-command.