Janus C cable break on winch launch; nose-first impact

The front-seat pilot of a Janus C was seriously injured and the rear-seat occupant lightly injured when the glider impacted the ground in a shallow nose-down attitude after a cable break on a winch launch from grass RWY 24 at Eutingen; aircraft substantially damaged. The Janus C lifted off in the initial climb and the steel cable parted; from below 100 m AGL the glider entered a descending flight path and struck the runway about 300 m from the launch point, nose first. The cockpit was destroyed and the empennage twisted off. No technical defects were found; the investigation closed as a facts-only report with no probable cause attributed.

1. Winch launch on grass RWY 24: At about 17:39 local time a Schempp-Hirth Janus C two-seat club glider launched by winch from the 850 m grass RWY 24 at the Eutingen gliding site, with the front-seat pilot and a rear-seat occupant on board. The winch was a double-drum type using a steel cable. The pilot had held a glider licence since 1982 with ~610 h total experience and about 600 winch launches lifetime, but only 7 winch launches in the last 90 days; he had flown 14 sailplane flights in 2009, 6 of them on the Janus C earlier that day. Surface wind was 280 deg at 12 kt; visibility was good with only scattered cloud above ~900 m AGL.
2. Cable parts in initial climb: Witnesses observed the steel winch cable part shortly after lift-off during the initial climb. The glider was at less than 100 m AGL at the moment of the break, leaving very little energy or height for a recovery and circuit back to the field.
3. Descending flight path below 100 m AGL: From below 100 m AGL the Janus C entered a descending flight path with a shallow nose-down attitude. The report describes the trajectory as observed, without attributing a specific control input; airspeed and pitch attitude at the moment of recovery from the cable break are not detailed in the facts-only summary.
4. Nose-first ground impact; both injured: The Janus C struck the grass runway about 300 m from the launch point with a shallow longitudinal attitude, first contact being the fuselage nose. The cockpit area was destroyed and the empennage was twisted off the fuselage. The front-seat pilot was seriously injured and the rear-seat occupant was lightly injured; the airframe was substantially damaged. No technical defects were found on the glider. The investigation was closed as a facts-only summary under section 18 FlUUG with no probable cause attributed.