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The 80-year-old pilot of a motorized glider that crashed Oct. 7 in a pasture near Hawaii island’s Waimea-Kohala Airport told a National Transportation Safety Board investigator he believed operational error and not an engine malfunction caused the crash.
The NTSB released a factual report Wednesday on the crash of the carbon fiber Schleicher ASH-25 Mi glider a mile short of the runway.
The pilot and registered owner of the glider, Woodson Woods, told the NTSB investigator during a phone conversation Oct. 30 that everything was happening so fast he was unable to use a checklist to restart the engine, could have forgotten something and wasn’t sure exactly what he did.
Woods said the engine was running fine after takeoff, about five to 10 minutes before the accident.
When asked by the investigator whether there were any mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine, he said no.
Woods was seriously injured in the crash, the NTSB said. Officials initially reported Woods complained of chest pain caused by the impact with the glider’s harness, and he was taken in stable condition to a hospital. The glider’s wings were substantially damaged.
At about 10:30 a.m. Oct. 7, the pilot reported marginal weather, with low clouds and the wind shifting between tradewinds and a westerly wind. He cut the engine shortly after takeoff.
When Woods was about a mile northwest of the airport, 500 feet above ground, the wind failed to change back to trades, so the glider could not get adequate lift.
Woods decided to turn back toward the airport and tried to start the engine, but failed.
Because there was a lack of adequate emergency landing sites, Woods tried to land on the runway.
When he lowered the landing gear, he felt the left wing stall, then hit the ground.
“The glider cartwheeled before coming to (a) rest in a field,” the report said.
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