Wayne wrote.........
I was there and Ramy is right. Why he had done the pass is the big
mystery.

It's no mystery to me, he did a low pass because that's what the big
guys do. Same thing happened at Tehachapi a few years back, also in a
BG-12. Returning to the field with excess altitude, the kid thought
he'd do what he had seen the big guys do, so many times. He made his
low pass then pulled on some flaps to slow her down (while still going
fast). One hinge failed and a flap ripped out taking some of the drag
spar with it. With a damaged drag spar, the wing twisted and seperated
from the aircraft. His Dad who had just bought the ship for his son,
watched it all.
There was a time (20 years ago) when the only way to finished the race
was with a low pass to the finish line. GPS has made the low pass no
longer necessary and the clock can be stopped when entering the finish
cylinder at 1 mile and 500 feet. At Parowan last year, I called 4
miles out, then 'finish' as I passed the 1 mile finish circle, then
called entering the pattern. As I was rolling out a shadow suddenly
came over me as another sailplane passed right over me. I thought for
a second that he was trying to land in front of me. No, just another
hot-shot doing an unnecessary low pass (aka buzz-job) then pulled up
into a crowded pattern, without saying a word on the radio.
RC are you listening? Its time to ban any low pass when a finish
cylinder is in use and require an "entering the pattern" call from
everyone.
If I had my way, the line finish and the 50 foot low pass to the line
would be dropped and only the finish cylinder authorized in the rules.
Flame suit on,
JJ