wrote:

The pilot received his student pilot certificate on March 16, 2005. On
March 24, 2005, he received his private pilot certificate with a glider
rating. On March 26, 2005, he obtained his commercial pilot certificate
with a glider rating.

I've always thought that the requirements to get a US glider rating are
ridiculously low. While we can argue whether they should or should not
be raised for private pilots, they are definitely much too low for the
commercial rating. (Form what I understand, you can get the commercial
riating and even the instructor rating without ever having flown cross
country!) We know nothing about this accident yet, and I may be wrong,
but reading the description, I attribute this accident to his low
experience. (Flew into a lee and got nervous by the presence of
passengers or something similiar.)

Stefan