Gliding is one of the purest forms of flight, but it also brings a safety picture of its own. Operations are highly dependent on judgement, discipline, teamwork, and getting the basics right every time.
The EASA Annual Safety Review 2025 shows that sailplane safety risks continue to centre on loss of control, collision risk, and take-off and landing events.
It also highlights that the sailplane environment is operationally unique: launches often depend on teamwork, landings may be made away from prepared surfaces, and pilots must continuously manage energy, terrain, traffic, and changing conditions.
For pilots, instructors, clubs, and launch crews, that means a clear priority:
focus on the basics, standardise good practice, and never normalise shortcuts.
What the data tells us
According to the EASA Annual Safety Review 2025, the main sailplane safety risks and occurrence patterns are:
Top safety risks
Based on aggregated ERCS safety risk score for 2023-2024:
- Aircraft upset (loss of control)
- Airborne collision
- Obstacle collision in flight
Most common occurrence categories
For 2020-2024, the leading occurrence categories involving sailplanes were:
- Abnormal runway contact
- Loss of control in flight
- Collision with obstacles during take-off and landing
Other notable categories included glider towing-related events, loss of lifting conditions en-route, and runway excursion events.
Highest-risk phases of flight
The review shows that:
- Landing is the highest-risk phase of flight in sailplane operations.
- Take-off is the second highest-risk phase.
Two areas worth extra attention
Below, we focus on two topics where strong discipline and standardised team practice can make a real difference: glider rigging and winch launches.
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Glider rigging: treat every assembly as safety-critical
Rigging errors are rare — but when they happen, the consequences can be catastrophic. That is why rigging must never become routine in the wrong sense of the word. Experience helps, but it does not replace process.
Every club and pilot should approach rigging with the same mindset:
assemble carefully, check independently, confirm positively, and never assume.
Why this matters
A glider may be assembled by experienced people, under time pressure, in changing weather, after a long day, or with interruptions in the launch area. Those are exactly the conditions where memory slips, assumption traps, and incomplete checks can creep in.
Good practice reminders
- Use a standard rigging process every time.
- Do not rely on memory alone — use the aircraft documentation, club procedure, and any approved check aids.
- Pay particular attention to control connections, locking devices, safety pins, and duplicate inspections.
- Carry out a positive control check before flight.
- Avoid distraction during rigging, derigging, and final preparation.
- When more than one person is involved, be clear about who has done what and who is responsible for the final release to service.
Club message
A well-rigged glider is not the result of confidence. It is the result of discipline, cross-checking, and speaking up when something does not look right.
Watch the video: Glider Rigging
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Winch launches: brief well, stay aligned, react early
The Annual Safety Review shows that take-off remains one of the highest-risk phases in sailplane operations. In a winch launch, events develop quickly, margins can reduce fast, and the whole launch depends on good coordination between pilot and ground crew.
A safe winch launch starts long before the cable goes tight. It starts with a shared understanding of the launch conditions, the plan, and the response to anything abnormal.
Key points for safe winch launching
- Ensure the launch brief is current, relevant, and understood.
- Confirm wind, runway, launch path, signals, cable condition, and any local hazards.
- Maintain correct alignment and a disciplined initial climb profile.
- Be alert to wing drop, acceleration issues, cable breaks, and abnormal attitudes.
- Know the launch failure actions for the actual conditions — and be prepared to act immediately.
- Ground crew and winch operators should use standard phraseology/signals and stop the launch if anything looks wrong.
Human factors matter
Many winch-launch events are not caused by one dramatic failure. They begin with a chain:
time pressure, incomplete brief, expectation bias, poor coordination, or a delayed response to something that did not look right at the start.That is why clubs should reinforce a simple rule:
if the set-up is not right, stop and reset.
Watch the video: Winch Launches
Safety is a team activity
Gliding depends on teamwork more than many other forms of flying. The launch crew, instructor, pilot, tug or winch operator, and other club members all play a part in creating safe operations. The EASA review itself notes that sailplane flying often depends on teamwork and safe towing into the air, which adds operational complexity but also supports a strong safety culture in the gliding community.
That culture is strengthened when people:
- follow standard procedures,
- challenge uncertainty,
- report occurrences and near misses,
- and share lessons openly.
Final takeaway
The data is clear: in sailplane operations, the biggest risks are still linked to loss of control, collision, and take-off/landing events. The response is just as clear:
Get the basics right, every flight, every launch, every assembly.