Vincent Petruso, 74, of East Moriches, was described by his family as a “dedicated member of the Long Island Soaring Association,” a five-decade-old nonprofit group dedicated to piloting such engineless aircraft.

The group is based out of Brookhaven Calabro Airport, where Petruso’s glider left shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday until it went down about 15 minutes later near Titmus Drive in Mastic.

Two people died in August when their single-engine propeller plane that crash landed on a Shirley side street minutes after taking off from the same airport.

Two others died when their small plane crashed into the Moriches Inlet in October. That plane had taken off from Spadaro Airport in East Moriches.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are expected to issue a preliminary report on the glider crash in about a week.

In the first of the most recent cases, two men broke into a Pleasantview Court home in Copiague, flashed a gun, demanded money and pistol-whipped a man inside at 9:20 p.m. Friday, police said. The suspects, described only as black men, fled with cash and property, police said.

Then at 11:40 p.m. Friday, three armed men kicked in the back door of a North 17th Street home in Wyandanch, stole money from the victims inside and fled the scene. The trio was only described as a group of Hispanic men.

A police spokesman could not confirm initial reports that the suspects were armed with a pistol and a machete but did say there have been no arrests in either case. It was unclear if there were any injuries in the second case.

The pair of Feb. 15 cases bring into the double digits the number of armed home invasions in Suffolk since Jan. 15, when there were five such incidents in a week in Mastic, North Lindenhurst, Dix Hills, Huntington and Coram. There were five arrested in the Huntington case and three arrested in the North Lindenhurt case.

A sixth armed home invasion was reported in Gordon Heights on Jan. 25, two days before a 21-year-old man was gunned down by home invaders in Flanders.

Three people have been arrested for the eighth armed home invasion in Halesite on Feb. 5 and another trio has been charged with the ninth home invasion in Central Islip in the early morning hours of Feb. 7.

Police are continuing the investigations.

None of the incidents appear to be random and the victims in some cases knew their attackers, authorities said. The incidents occurred in Mastic, North Lindenhurst, Dix Hills, Huntington and Coram between Jan. 15 and Jan. 22. Five were nabbed in the Huntington case and three were busted for the North Lindenhurst case.

The first case came when police said a Mastic woman reported a pair of masked gunmen broke into her Wills Avenue home, stole her iPhone and fled at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 15. The victim reported that one assailant was wearing a Spiderman mask.

Then at 10:30 p.m. Sunday, three Brentwood men—one armed with a handgun—forced their way into a North Lindenhurst home on Feustal Street, where they stole cash and cell phones from the victims inside. The trio was arrested shortly afterward.

A half hour later, two masked gunmen walked into a Dix Hills house on Deer Park Avenue through an unlocked door, pistol-whipped a man and woman inside and fled with the victims’ wallets and cell phones, police said.

“They appear to be targeted locations,” Second Squad Det. Sgt. Richard Auspaker said of the Dix Hills case and the arrest of five men for an alleged home invasion in nearby Huntington two days later. “It’s possibly related.”

In the Huntington case, police said three suspects entered a home on Leigh Street through an unlocked door, threatened five residents inside and demanded cash while the other two suspects acted as lookouts outside at 1:20 a.m. Tuesday.

All five men fled in a Lincoln but were apprehended shortly later on Deer Park Avenue in Dix Hills, police said. Two guns were allegedly recovered.

And in the fifth case in the eight-day span, police said four men forced their way into a Coram home on Townhouse Road, one suspect displayed a rifle and the group tied up a woman and three children at 9:30 p.m. Monday. It’s unclear what the suspects stole.

The victims in the Dix Hills case were treated for minor injuries at Huntington Hospital. The victims in the other four cases were not injured.

No arrests have been made in the Mastic, Coram or Dix Hills cases. A police spokeswoman said the Mastic and Coram cases were also believed to be targeted.

“It doesn’t appear that these two are related to other precincts,” Auspaker said of the Huntington and Dix Hills home invasions versus the other three.