Observant readers of the report will note that the
silver car that the photographer was standing on was
situated on the left hand margin of the extended landing
area boundary which rather begs the question as to
why the pilot of the glider concerned felt it necessary
to bank to the left, with a bank angle of 20 degrees,
which on the face of it would take him further away
from the landing area. I do not have a great deal of
trouble reaching a conclusion but it is up to you to
make your own decision on that.

If you look closely at the GPS tracks on Figure 5 you'll see that the
accident pilot appears to have approached the hedge a bit from the
left/South at less than a 90 deg angle/not perpendicular (see black
track). An estimated 20 deg bank angle to the left is most likely a
consequence of him making a slight adjustment/bank to the left to line
up perpendicular to the runway/finish line. The accident report
mentions that the pilot does not recall having conciously banked which
suggests that he might have done one of those instinctive adjustments
we all do when lining up for the runway, his primary focus appeared to
have been on clearing the hedge (page 58). My humble guess is that he
popped up to clear the hedge and upon seeing past the hedge
subconciously banked a bit to better aline with the runway. Looking at
the red and blue track as a reference he probably needed to adjust his
track by about 10 deg to the South when crossing the hedge to line up
the same way the other two competitors did.

Looking at figures 4a/4b and how close he was to the hedge supports
that he probably did not do a concious banking maneuver; had he been
just a couple of meters or so further to the South (to the right in
figures 4a/4b) he would most likely have struck the hedge with the
wing tip and not the unfortunate photographer. Any concious banking
maneuver should have triggered him to pull up more before banking
irrespective of the cavalier attitude shown by flying this low in the
first place.

My humble two cents,

Markus Graeber