Shirley,
I agree with JJ. A total of 500 hours is pretty low time to be soaring
in strong weather conditions at a high density altitude airport with
few reasonably safe landable areas near the home field.
One of my biggest concerns as a former instructor was pilots who so
intently focused on getting back to the home runway that they would
fly over very safe fields - getting way too low in the process. IMHO
instructors just don't practice enough off-airport landings with new
cross country pilots. We leave it to the pilots to learn this skill on
their own....If a pilot (of any experience level) is too worried about
trying to land in a reasonably safe off-airport field and insists on
streaching it to get back to the home runway they are asking for
trouble!
I understand the fear of damaging one's sailplane in an off-field
landing - it happens. But I would rather risk dinging my sailplane
than to risk serious injury trying to it stretch getting home. I have
made over a dozen outlandings within 2 miles of my "home" runway as a
result of my belief!
I know nothing of the details about the accident at Air Sailing.
Never-the-less I would be willing to speculate that, even knowing the
terrain around Air Sailing, had an average 500 hour pilot elected to
land "straight ahead" after the low altitude rope break, he or she
most likely would have walked away from the landing.