Lee downdraft pushes a slope-soaring glider into the trees

The pilot was injured and the glider substantially damaged when it struck trees on a wooded slope after a sudden downdraft. After a winch launch for a local flight with a passenger aboard, the pilot slope-soared a series of mountain cirques. In the second cirque the glider stopped climbing and sank; as he turned off the slope to break away, it met a strong lee downdraft and lost height fast. Unable to outclimb it, he made a distress call and flared into the treetops, where the glider lodged flat a few metres up. Investigators cited the choice to keep working the cirques without lift and a possible misreading of the wind.

1. Slope-soaring mountain cirques: After a winch launch for a local flight with a passenger aboard, the pilot slope-soared a group of mountain cirques at about 1,000 m.
2. Second cirque, no lift: In the second cirque the glider stopped climbing and began to sink, and the pilot decided to turn away from the slope.
3. Turned off into a lee downdraft: As he moved away from the slope to break off, the glider met a strong downdraft on the lee side of the terrain.
4. Rapid height loss: The glider lost height rapidly and could no longer clear the trees on the wooded slope.
5. Distress call and flare: The pilot made a distress call and flared firmly onto the treetops as the trees came up.
6. Came to rest in the trees: The glider dropped flat into the trees a few metres up; the pilot was injured, the passenger unhurt, and both self-evacuated.