The glider was being winch-launched from strip 36. During the launch, the left wingtip dropped into lush vegetation covering the strip. The glider rolled rapidly to the left around the wingtip, until it was inverted. It impacted heavily in this attitude and came to rest 96 metres from, and 15 metres to the left of the take-off point. A 15-20 knot north-easterly wind was blowing at the time and the right wing was seen to lift as the left wing contacted a reasonably heavy cover of dandelions which were 30-40 centrimetres tall. The pilot had activated the manual release and the winch operator stopped the launch when the glider adopted the acute roll angle, but both of these actions were too late for recovery to be achieved prior to impact. Due to soggy conditions, the gliding club had not used the strip for the previous 2 months, and had not mown the surface prior to recommencement of operations.
