Yes, unfortunately we lost one of our own LESC club members.

It was quite a shock as Bill Kleese was a good experienced pilot.

He towed in the Calair and flew the gliders regularly.

Apparently the tow rope seperated(Broke or was released?) from the
1-34 and he made a turn to return or find a suitable landout.

The crash took place 400 yds from the end of the runway after
takeoff .

I looked at the glider and saw that the left wing was broke midspan
and bent towards the rear along with tip damage.

The right wing was broken just out a bit from the root and bent
forward, also with lots of tip damage.

The cockpit area was very crumpled and bent with even instruments
glass being smashed.

From the observations above it seems clear to me that a well banked
left turn was initiated but at some point in the turn
the left wing impacted the ground and yawed the glider into the ground
with the nose suffing a great deal of damage.

Perhaps he misjudged the height or did not have quite enough altitude
to complete the 180 turn back to the field.

It just does not quite make sense that such an experienced pilot could
misjudge that being so low or just not land in the brushy field
everywhere below in any direction.

I suspect there might have been other factors to this accident that we
may never fully discover.

Its very sad for the club and his loved loved ones.

He is in our thoughts and will be missed by all.

May he rest in peace.

Ray




On Sep 14, 4:12*pm, Vorsanger1 wrote:
The Los Angeles Times of 09/14/09 reported a glider fatality out of
Elsinore, CA on Sunday 09/13/09. There were few details except the
name / age of the pilot, and the fact that he was on tow and crashed
"about 400 ft off the runway". *Does anyone know the circumstances ?

No cheers, *Charles.