Collision with terrain involving a Grob Astir CS 77, VH-IKE, Corowa, New South Wales, on 16 October 1994

During a winch launch the pilot noted that the glider was accelerating slowly. He considered abandoning the launch but because there was 6000 feet of runway he decided to persist until the winch driver realised that more power/speed was required. The speed slowly increased to 50 knots at which point the pilot made a gentle rotation. As soon as the glider started to rotate the speed fell off dramatically.

The pilot said that he lowered the nose immediately and then saw the ground approaching at a steep angle. He managed to get the aircraft to a level attitude but was unable to prevent it touching down very heavily resulting in substantial damage.