Here's another article about that accident. It seems the deceased was a long time aviator.
Family remembers Glider crash victim | Goulburn Post
If I ever figure out what an SMS is I might agree with Lookleft.
AFAIK it is just the latest buzzword in a long list like TQM, Six Sigma, ISO 9000, ISO 14000 etc etc. Gets the top brass off the hook. "See we set up an SMS and so it can't have been our fault that the accident happened".
This accident is just the latest in a long line of gliding accidents that should not have happened in the last few years.
Like the guy at Lake Keepit who had his head cut off by being put through the end fence after an aborted launch (what did I say about not using all the runway?). His first training flight in a glider.
The Instructor who killed his sister in law at Gympie by getting a little low before trying to join circuit, passed up three opportunities to turn in early or land safely on the cross runway and wound up turning final below the threshold of the runway (14 at Gympie - those familiar will know it is possible).
The bloke injured at Benalla in an inadvertant outlanding on his first weekend gliding(Instructor in aircraft).
The 21 year old female student at Ararat 2 1/2 years ago whose instructor proved incapable and tried to do a low altitude turnback resulting in a spin in killing them both.
The above aren't exhaustive and there was nothing daring or radical being attempted. Just normal operations.
It goes on and on and nothing gets done. The GFA makes excuses and CASA does nothing.
GFA does make more rules though. One excuse for not publishing the results of accident investigations was that it wasn't necessary as the GFA would simply make more rules to prevent that type of accident and all pilots had to do was follow the rules.
The latest GFA idiocy I've been told about is a REQUIREMENT that all pilots do full spins and recoveries on the annual check.
Many clubs have Puchacz gliders. I wouldn't spin one. 25 of the type have been spun in around the world out of a couple of hundred built. Including one with a couple of USAF Test Pilot School graduates. Interestingly the successor glider from that manufacturer has a completely different tail design of known good spin recovery characteristics.
As for the rest, these annual checks will commonly be done where the spins will be entered at relatively low altitude, parachutes won't be worn and the overall risk exposure will be high.
Properly trained glider pilots don't accidently spin.
Can someone say "risk management"?