On April 27, 2013, at Southern Tablelands Gliding club, a glider on approach hits a glider being winch launched. Evidently the person responsible for giving the up slack did not look out properly or was unable to see the glider on approach in time to stop the launch. The mid air collision caused damage to the tail of the glider being launched, resulting in the death of its pilot.
Only 7 people on the field, only two gliders being flown. And on only one runway was the grass cut short enough to be usable.
This is what I have gathered from reading the 3 pages of this thread, begun in response to the recent report of the coroner.
Such a terrible accident must be devastating for the club and everyone involved. Whenever anyone is injured or killed it is not easy to accept personal or group responsibility. People react in very different ways. Some say "not my fault!" Some simply leave and never come back. And some are devastated for years.
If the gliding club still exists at Southern Tablelands, I would like to know what changes have been made to prevent a recurrence. We are fortunate enough at our club in the UK to have wide grass runways that can cope with lots of gliders landing more or less at the same time. As far as a winch launch taking off at the wrong time, that happened once at the same time I was airtowing a glider, and only luck kept me from being sliced up by the wire.
There will always be the possibility of the wingtip holder not being qualified or not doing a good lookout. It is best to have TWO people doing the lookout, one is on the wingtip of the glider ready for launch, the other one is doing the radio and should ALSO be having a jolly good lookout for aircraft on approach. Thats how we try to do it, but it does take at least two knowlegable people on the ground. And of course the pilot on approach should also have his eyes on stalks, and the choice of more than one place to plonk the glider.