Inexperience cause of fatal flight

It was the first time Katikati’s Gavin Harvey had piloted a singleseater glider on his own. It was also his last.

On May 1, 2016, Harvey lost control of his glider while he was coming in to land at Tauranga airport.

He had aborted his first landing and made a sharp turn to line up a second.

The action put his glider into a nose dive from about 60m in the air.

Harvey was unable to pull out and crashed into two parked trailers.

He survived the crash but died the following day at Waikato Hospital.

After a lengthy investigation the Civil Aviation Authority concluded a lack of experience was the most likely cause of the accident.

They recommended flight instructors take greater care when moving a student pilot into their first solo flight and ensure students are familiar with controls and handling characteristics.

Harvey began flying gliders in June 2015 and was on his way to achieving the Gliding A Certificate.

At the time of the accident he had 16 hours and 12 minutes of dual flight time in his logbook.

He had completed three soloflights in a dual seater glider yet it was his first time flying the singleseater Swidnik PW-5 ZK-GPE glider.

‘‘The student pilot’s solo flight time of 49 minutes prior to his first flight in the PW-5 glider was probably inadequate,’’ the CAA report said.

‘‘As a general rule of thumb 10 to 15 solo flights and around 1.5 - 2 hours solo time would not be unusual for someone that has only flown a limited number of two seat glider types.’’

Prior to his fatal flight, Harvey completed a dual flight with his gliding instructor, who was new to teaching Harvey.

The instructor declared him competent to go solo in the PW-5 glider.

‘‘The student pilot was unfamiliar with the handling characteristic and performance of the PW-5 glider,’’ the report said.

‘‘During the approach to land, observers on the ground noted that the glider was high on the final approach, but in their opinion and experience, he could have still completed a landing on the runway.’’

It was then the fatal turn was made and Harvey lost control.

The CAA was unable to determine the exact cause of the accident but their analysis suggested Harvey may have become ‘‘cognitively overloaded’’ due to his lack of experience and aborted approach to his initial runway.

The CAA also recommended glider clubs which have access to high-performance, single-seat gliders should establish minimum qualifying criteria and flight manuals should be read before any solo flight commences.

Gliding New Zealand president Karen Morgan said the gliding community was saddened by the accident and gliding clubs have taken on board the findings of the CAA report.

In the wake of the accident, Tauranga gliding club introduced a peer review system to ensure gliding instructors are all aware of each student’s capability.

Morgan defended the instructor’s decision to allow Harvey to fly solo.

‘‘Pilots vary in skill enormously,’’ she said.

‘‘On the day Gavin flew well enough for his instructor to say he was ready to fly solo,’’ she said.

‘‘We simply don’t fully know what happened in the aircraft out there.

‘‘It was an unusual accident and thankfully they are very rare.’’