Your First Land Out

[Dan Marotta]

Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.

As stated elsewhere, formal training for cross country flying and
landing out is sorely lacking in the USA.Â* Yes, there are a few places
where you can go to seek this type of training but, unless you live
there or nearby, you won't get it.

My story:

I owned a Mosquito and had an accomplished cross country pilot as a
friend and mentor.Â* He took me out surfing a cold front in central Texas
and opened my eyes to cross country flying.Â* Following that, there was a
local weekend contest at our club and I got a lot of good advice from
the contestants.

I don't recall the flight in which I had my first land out, but I do
recall the landing.Â* I found a beautiful green field and set up a
pattern to land and, on short final, it became apparent that it was a
vineyard!Â* Fortunately for me, there was a plowed field adjacent to the
vineyard and it was a simple maneuver to side step and complete the
landing across the furrows.Â* It was a bit rough and the field was sloped
upward in the direction of the landing so it was short due to the
slope.Â* There was no damage and the farmer, sitting on his tractor,
attached a rope to the release and towed me out of the field.

--
Dan, 5J

[Tango Eight]

My first off field landing occurred 20 minutes after my first contest start, after poking around in 1 mile visibility and getting substantially lost. August 1991 in Elmira, NY.

For those that have forgotten (or never knew), August visibility in the Northeastern US used to be atrocious... and in pre-GPS days it was very possible to get lost :-). I used 970 feet of a 1000 foot long hay field.

The very next day, again in terrible visibility, I flew myself into an unlandable valley between Bath and Hammondsport. This time I knew where I was.... and I was beginning to think I might end up landing in Keuka Lake. Getting truly desperate, I selected a corner of a corn field where the corn was stunted. It was up against a steep hillside, the landable area might have been 300 x 60'. A terrible situation, but best available in this horrid valley. Reaching for the gear handle on right downwind, I took one more look around in the thick haze and I saw the unmistakable bright orange of a brand new wind sock at a private airport, about 3/4 mile further up the valley (it had not been visible when I selected my corn field landing spot). Right downwind for trouble turned into left downwind to sweet relief. I'm sure glad those days are history.

Here's a short article I wrote for my club that deals with field selection and process. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gK5VgxwNjVLn421Nk3I-rAdMt01cHRV6

If you have good field selection discipline and good decision making and pattern discipline, you are 95% of the way home to keeping your glider shiny.

My favorite article on off field landings is by Kai Gertsen:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByhhzUJHLI_iU05jaGNWbFRuMnM

best,
Evan Ludeman

[Mike C]

On Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 8:41:19 AM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
> Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
> training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.
>
> As stated elsewhere, formal training for cross country flying and
> landing out is sorely lacking in the USA.Â* Yes, there are a few places
> where you can go to seek this type of training but, unless you live
> there or nearby, you won't get it.
>
> My story:
>
> I owned a Mosquito and had an accomplished cross country pilot as a
> friend and mentor.Â* He took me out surfing a cold front in central Texas
> and opened my eyes to cross country flying.Â* Following that, there was a
> local weekend contest at our club and I got a lot of good advice from
> the contestants.
>
> I don't recall the flight in which I had my first land out, but I do
> recall the landing.Â* I found a beautiful green field and set up a
> pattern to land and, on short final, it became apparent that it was a
> vineyard!Â* Fortunately for me, there was a plowed field adjacent to the
> vineyard and it was a simple maneuver to side step and complete the
> landing across the furrows.Â* It was a bit rough and the field was sloped
> upward in the direction of the landing so it was short due to the
> slope.Â* There was no damage and the farmer, sitting on his tractor,
> attached a rope to the release and towed me out of the field.
>
> --
> Dan, 5J

My first-

1-26 flight for Silver distance from the then Chemung County Airport, Schweizer Aircraft Soaring School on 8-20-1965, I was 17. Came over high trees at the end of a nice but short looking (from the air) field in full slip and spoiler. I stopped with a very short ground roll and a lot of field in front of me. I think it was an alfalfa field.

Mike "4"

[RR]

My first land out was 12k into my first 1000k attempt (always good to have big goals ;-)

Flying out of Mifflin County, my start was the next ridge over on Tussy. Another pilot was flying Jacks Mt and it was working, not great but working. I took a long tow to start on Tussy, but that valley was covered in overcast, and the angle to the wind was just enough different that the ridge was not working. No thermals to get up off the ridge, I stuck with as much as I could but the landable fields were getting farther and farther from the ridge so I headed out to the valley, found a nice, plowed 4000 ft field, and landed next to the road. It turns out that was across the street from the home of the airport manager of the university part airport. He got a big kick out of my "dropping in" and it was totally painless.

As has been stated, some places are much better for this than others, and there is hardly a better place than the valleys around Mifflin. I needed to land one day because of thunderstorms moving into the area, so I decided to use an airport called center hall. I had not landed there before, and the wx was getting close. I found myself saying "which one of these perfect 4000 ft long fields is the airport"? I finally found the windsock and "flew out the storm" in the cockpit, on the ground...

[AS]

On Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 10:41:19 AM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
> Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
> training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.
>
> As stated elsewhere, formal training for cross country flying and
> landing out is sorely lacking in the USA.Â* Yes, there are a few places
> where you can go to seek this type of training but, unless you live
> there or nearby, you won't get it.
>
> My story:
>
> I owned a Mosquito and had an accomplished cross country pilot as a
> friend and mentor.Â* He took me out surfing a cold front in central Texas
> and opened my eyes to cross country flying.Â* Following that, there was a
> local weekend contest at our club and I got a lot of good advice from
> the contestants.
>
> I don't recall the flight in which I had my first land out, but I do
> recall the landing.Â* I found a beautiful green field and set up a
> pattern to land and, on short final, it became apparent that it was a
> vineyard!Â* Fortunately for me, there was a plowed field adjacent to the
> vineyard and it was a simple maneuver to side step and complete the
> landing across the furrows.Â* It was a bit rough and the field was sloped
> upward in the direction of the landing so it was short due to the
> slope.Â* There was no damage and the farmer, sitting on his tractor,
> attached a rope to the release and towed me out of the field.
>
> --
> Dan, 5J

Had to be around 1978 and our club was on a summer camp in Bourges, Central France. I had just accumulated enough hours to transition into our Ka6CR and tried to thermal on a marginal yet breezy day. Needless to say, I didn't watch the 'Lift-to-Drift' ratio and found myself way downwind; too far for even the 'high performance' Ka6! Fortunately, the fields in that part of France are huge, so I picked a harvested one with a road and farm house and landed between them. The landing was event-less and with my French cheat-sheet in hand, I walked up to farm house and knocked at the door. An old lady opened the door and I read off the sheet in an attempt to convey to her that I landed that plane behind me in her field and if she would be so kind to call the retrieve office at the Bourges Airport. She looked puzzled, took my cheat sheet with the phone number and closed the door. Well, life seemed good, the cavalry should arrive soon. Far from it! She must have thought another German invasion was upon her and she called every police force she knew of. In short order, the local cops arrived followed by what may have been state cops (different uniform) plus some dudes in dark suites with a badge in their pocket. Oh boy - and I left my ID at the airport! So I produced the glider's log book, which had an official looking stamp for each year of its existence certifying the airworthiness after the annual inspections. The officials were overjoyed and eagerly copied any info they deemed relevant. One of the guys in the dark suit spoke English well enough and I got him to call the airport. They were of course worried because I was MIA and were at there with the trailer 30 minutes later. One of our girls spoke French and was able to explain the whole thing, after which the uniformed guys left with a snappy salut. It was a great experience, for sure!
A few years later, I landed a H101 Salto near a small French village in the countryside. There was some kind of a wine-harvest festival going on and I was invited to partake! I was offered everything other than the mayor's daughter and by the time the crew arrived, I was comfortably blitzed and of not much use for de-rigging the glider! :-)

As for off-field landing training: our club had SF25b motor-gliders; side-by-side, 45HP VW derived engine. The instructor would take us out on a course, pull the engine to idle and ask 'Where would you land out now?'. We had to pick a field and make the approach all the way down to maybe 150 or so feet before he would reapply the power and climb out. I thought that was an excellent way of training off-field landings.

Uli
'AS'

[[email protected]]

2/17/74, Homedale, Idaho, towed to1700’, climbed to 4300’ and turned to the heading for my turn-point, some 15 miles away. I had 27.0 hours in my recently licensed BJ-1B Duster and a total time in sailplanes of 43 hours................didn’t have a clue what I was doing! Following a county road as I got lower and lower and wondered why these green fields weren’t working? Kept passing up one field after another, finally at about 300 feet, I turned left 90 degrees and landed in low crops............minimal damage to my wheel fairing.
JJ

[WB]

On Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 9:41:19 AM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
> Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
> training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.

> Dan, 5J

Wave camp at Shiflet Field, NC, maybe 30 years ago. Flying a rented Schweizer 1-23 H15. No wind, no wave, but weak thermals. My last words before closing the canopy were "No way you could get lost here. There's the lake, there's the town, there's Mt. Mitchell." Well, when I sank below ridge top height, all I could see were the tops of trees and the tops of ridges. I stayed with the valley I was in where there were plenty of landing sites. Eventually, it became obvious I was not going to climb back out so I set up my landing pattern into a 2000' long hay field. On downwind, I noticed the field was actually on the side of a hill and was fairly steeply sloped from side to side. Full divebrakes and a slip turned my base leg into a short final diagonally up the slope. Landing was uneventful... at first. Then the glider started rolling back down the hill backwards. I managed to scramble out and stop the thing before we got going too fast. The only damage was that I ruined the gliding day for a couple of my friends who had planned to fly that glider after me and who, instead, spent the afternoon retrieving me. Thanks Jeff, Keith!

[JS[_5_]]

May 1986. Silver distance.
Colts Neck Airport, NJ to Flying W Airport, NJ.
Central Jersey Soaring Club's Pilatus B4.
Believe both airports are now gone, as is the club.
N95AS is now in CO.
Jim

[SoaringXCellence]

My first land out was in a SGS 1-26, 4 miles from the club field. I had taken a tow and felt a big bump at about 1800 feet and thought it would be cool (and save money) to get off tow at that point. Circled back to the thermal(?) and struggled about 6-8 minutes to get any altitude: none to speak of and decided that safety was the best choice. I found the biggest fallow field and set up a good short approach to the field, just touched down past the fence and put the skid in the dirt. 150 feet from the fence, in a big field, with the only gate on the other side. Dragged the glider across the field just as a farmer came up as asked if I wanted a ride to the club field. Iwas fortunate as the club planned to de-rig that glider in the evening for a safari and I didn't have to put it back together.

Never get off tow to be cool!!

Mike B.

[[email protected]]

It was the first competition flying my 20.5m LAK 12 in the Club Class (severely handicapped). Flew too fast between thermals trying to keep up with the 15m gliders instead of flying to my gliders strengths. So landed up 8km short. Selected my field and remembered the advice from my instructor who said: "for your first land out you select the largest field and land in the middle, the second land out you land close to the gate". Now the LAK 12 is a heavy glider - and the trailer is huge. So I selected the large field and identified what I thought was the gate and access into the field over a railway line. Put the glider down exactly where I wanted. Walked to the edge of the field and realised the perimeter road was on the other side of the fence. The gate by the railway line had a huge padlock on it. There was no way of getting the trailer anywhere near the glider. In the end, the glider had to be towed the entire length of the field because the actual access gate was the opposite end from where I had landed.

[[email protected]]

1-26 straight-out gold attempt across the Everglades and Big Cypress from Miami Glider Club near Homestead. Summer was approaching and that means the end of good soaring on the Florida peninsula - so even though day wasn't ideal I took a stab. Made it past LaBelle but it took 5 hours - stuck it in a field along US29 which I had driven by recently. No sweat. Detailed in Soaring article "In the Bullpen with Bumpy"...

[[email protected]]

By the way, I can't help but remember the Rodney Dangerfield joke about the "first time":

"Sex, ah, don't get me started. Everyone remembers their first time, right? I do...I was so scared - I was alone!"

[James Koper]

My first land out was Memorial day Monday this week. This was my 4th flight in the Mini Nimbus I had purchased about 2 months ago. It was my first attempt at pushing out on a serious (to me anyway) XC flight. A 44 mile out and return. I had launched from Chilhowee Gliderport headed for Monroe County Airport KMNV. On the return leg a high cloud layer moved in and shut down the thermals and ended landing out at McMinn County Airport KMMI 10 miles short of making it back to Chilhowee. It worked out great because this is where I keep my Vagabond, so I was able to just call Jason Arnold and another one of the local pilots volunteered to pick me up and give me a ride back to Chilhowee to get my trailer. Once I got the glider back in the trailer I put it in my hangar with the Vagabond. I couldn't have asked for a better outcome then that. Here is a link to a video of my flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sucO0Jnm4JI&t=4s


Jim

[[email protected]]

Mine was also my first flight with a paying passenger. It was in a 2-33 on a day that had some, but not booming, lift and light wind. I drifted downwind (yes, in a 2-33) of the field slowly and saw a cu that I thought would extend the ride. It didn't work and I turned for home. The vario pegged down and stayed there. Even a moderate sink rate would have been enough but it wasn't to be. I probably could have made it for a straight-in but I was directly over a sod farm. I opted for the sure thing and landed on the smoothest field imaginable. The passenger wasn't upset and thought the whole thing was pretty cool. The tug came from the airport (less than a mile away) and all was well. I was embarrassed and an idiot for getting into the circumstance in the first place but was at least smart enough to not stretching the glide in the Blue Whale.

[Martin Gregorie[_6_]]

On Thu, 30 May 2019 08:41:16 -0600, Dan Marotta wrote:

28Aug2001 Landed at Rattlesden GC after a slow, largely blue, Silver
distance flight from Gransden lodge in an SZD Junior. I got stuck over a
golf course just south of Cambridge, which slowed me down a lot.
Conditions improved during the rest of the flight so, on arrival I was
able to park in a thermal near the field and see how Rattlesden traffic
worked before landing there.

My logbook says I took 2 hours 44 mins to fly the 67.5 km to Rattlesden,
so 24.7 kph. Told you it was slow!


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

[[email protected]]

I don't think landing at your intended destination is a land-out. Nor do I think landing at an airport is a land-out. If that's the case, I had countless before landing off-airport. If you always make it home you're not pushing yourself.

[Martin Gregorie[_6_]]

On Fri, 31 May 2019 07:27:39 -0700, sgs135c wrote:

> I don't think landing at your intended destination is a land-out. Nor do
> I think landing at an airport is a land-out. If that's the case, I had
> countless before landing off-airport. If you always make it home you're
> not pushing yourself.

I contributed it because that was the first time I'd ever landed anywhere
other than the airfield I'd launched from.

Since it was a landing on a field I'd never seen at all previously and
had received absolutely no briefing about apart from "go there and land
to get Silver distance", just how is my story different from other
airport land-outs in this thread?


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

[Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot)]

Hmmmmm......I was a teenager, likely less than 100hrs in any aircraft.
A Friday (IIRC.....look it up.....it made the local Middletown, NY paper...).....
Iffy day, found a weak thermal close to "home", did not understand the concept of "drift vs. glide angle" yet.
Yes, I was climbing.
Yes, drift was faster than than the meager climb.....I was drifting away from the field....SGS-1-26.... just signed off to fly it....sigh....(part of the angst of a CFI signing off a student....)
I landed in a ball field (sorta middle of apartment complex) within a mile of "home" when I finally figured out I was "in the poop".

No damage done.
A few years later, an "esteemed member of this forum and my home field" was with another in a 2-33..... they got stuck like I did.
PIC comment was sorta like, "Charlie landed here with no issues, so should we (length of trees from that place to sorta runway....)" yeah.......man more TV antennas grew up since my landing......making an "iffy" into a "challenging". Again, no hurt ship....a 2-33 is a worse retrieve than a 1-26.......
Yep, on my mothers BD....totally another story.....maybe worth another thread.

My "training" for off field landings?
Put it where you want it......every time.....even at home.
About this time, I started doing the HHSC Snowbird Thanksgiving weekend. The rules for that morphed over the years to promote off field landing practice.
Yes......I harp a lot on that.....always practice harder than likely reality....

In the US, I had a few off airport landings BEFORE the bronze badge existed.. I gained an early number.
Since some of our CFIG's had racing/XC experience, they pushed that knowledge.
When I became an instructor...I took the FAR's for a flight test that stated, "precision landing......a landing followed by stopping short of but within x feet of a predetermined mark" (200' for pvt/cml, 100' for CFI-g) to mean......you get a 200-100' landing zone.....period......
Why?
My interpretation of the reg is, "I could touch down at one end of a 5000' runway.......roll all the way to the other end, but stop short of but within x feet of a predetermined spot......and pass...."
Before I signed someone off for a flight test, they got a 200' or 100' marked "runway". Touchdown and stop in that length!

Sorta worthless based on my interpretation of the FAA regs.

BTW....my initial CFI–G check ride.....airport grass was long, passing showers (so grass was wet....) and I still managed to drop in a 2-33 in a 100' "wet grass runway" and stop more than once.

Outlandings can be a lot less dramatic when you can put any aircraft where you want it, when you want it.
Yes......crappy fields can ruin even the best off field landing situation......

[Michael Opitz]

At 14:41 30 May 2019, Dan Marotta wrote:
>Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
>training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.
>

May 29, 1966. I was 15 years old. Our club had taken our #003
1-26 to Salem Depot, NH for a small Memorial Day glider meet
hosted by Roy McMaster and crew. We had heavy rain in the
morning and watched as a cold front blew through. As soon as the
sun came out, low Cu's started popping, so they decided to launch
the fleet immediately. I was selected by our other club members
to fly that day. It turned out that the Cu's were very low due to the
wet ground, and the wind was quite strong. I found myself
thermalling with Roy below me in his 1-23 at low altitude about 10
miles from the launch point. There were a number of good looking
larger type fields around, but I decided to wait and see which field
Roy would pick, as he was a CFIG and all, and he was below me.
So, as I watched, Roy rolls out and heads into this small (~300'
long?) baseball field (with a good clear approach though). I couldn't
believe he was passing on all of the other bigger good looking fields.
So, Roy lands and rolls out around the baseball backstop and stops
on a driveway between two buildings. His wings stopped about 5'
short of each one. Well, I figured that Roy must have known
something that I didn't about all of those other good looking fields
because he was a local, so I decided to follow him in. The approach
area was an uphill clearing where the trees had all been knocked
down, so the only obstacle was a 3' high stone wall on the field's
perimeter. After seeing how long Roy had rolled, I decided that I
would watch my speed and land a little slower and shorter than he
did. I guess Roy knew that I was behind him because I never saw
anyone ground egress a glider quicker, as he jumped out and ran
to the middle of the field. My approach worked out pretty well with
my tail wheel just lightly grazing the top stone on that stone wall. I
touched down and stopped before mid-field where Roy was waiting
to grab a wingtip and groundloop me so that I wouldn't hit his 1-23.
As soon as I opened the canopy, I asked Roy why he had landed
there as opposed to all of those other good fields. His answer? He
was the principal of that school, so he knew his schoolyard! Except,
he couldn't remember if there was a power line going across the
approach, so he had flown faster than normal. Afterwards, we both
agreed that maybe the nice bigger fields would have been the better
choice. My father wasn't along for that contest, and Roy promised
me that he wouldn't tell him how small it was.... Later, though, Dad
had other opportunities to tell me to "pick a bigger field the next
time..." Luckily, they have all worked out OK....

RO

[Charlie Quebec]

My first outlanding was a a training flight, flew outside glide, then picked a plowed paddock that was gigantic. Everything went well, except I chose to land long,
I was getting an air tow retrieve from the field, so we had a very difficult push of 300m. When the tug landed, he lost the rings hitting the downwind fence,
so there we were, all looking at each other. Eventually we resolved to,tie the rope to the tug end, and I did my first IFR dust takeoff, an experience in itself.
It’s a funny thing outlanding, I’m very cautious and this reflects in my miserable XC speed. So, I’m on a XC courseflying an LS7 lead and follow with a coach in a V1b
who led me to outlanding height 30k out. He found a thermal, but I could not get the LS7 to climb in it, narrow thermalling in the 7 had a high sink rate, so down I went.
Therevfollowed a fair while of slow XC with no landouts, then I made a mistake, deciding to fly a couple of state comps with an instructor friend and band mate who I now refer to as the GM.
If you’re wondering, it means “ground magnet�. :).
First comp day, I fly the first 30KM then hand over at 4,500ft. 15 minutes later I’m back on the controls over a nice paddock at 1000 ft desperately searching. Found 1/2kt at 700 and worked it back to
1200ft, then tried a tiny correction. Bam, thermal gone and into the paddock. Next day rinse and repeat at remote airfield, complete with expensive aero retrieve. We had a day off.
Amazingly, the last day we nearly won with a 2:17 min 327KM under Cu at 11,500 base. We thought our luck had changed, so we went in the next comp, and Bam, same as first two flights, except this time I managed a perfect landing on top of the wheat crop that LOOKED like it had been harvested, as the stalks rose above the canopy, and wheat started shooting out of the vents it became obvious it was not. From then on whenever the glider did a high speed run, a wheat bullet would come flying out the vent system randomly for a few years.

As I had flared perfectly on top of the crop, there was no ground loop, helped by the upturned 20M tips of the DG1000. After that, I went back to single seaters. Eventually, I did a motor glider outlanding check at a later date, but frankly found it
of little assistance, as I always knew I could open the throttle and get away.
My biggest tip for outlanding, always be aware of the kind of ground on track, and if needed deviate to the side of a bad area to stay in range of landable fields.
Think.
Wind
Slope
Stock
Surface
SWER (power lines)
Surroundings,
Stones
Last but not least, when I commit to an outlanding I start saying the safe airspeed our loud every 10 seconds whilst checking the ASI, a practice Imusecon aerotow rope breaks.
Some of the most amazing gliding stories are those of retrieves that went wrong, but that’s another thread I think. Believe it or not, it’s usually a fun adventure, and you meet some interesting
People.

[Roy B.]

Mine was in 1976 in 1-26 #308 in a fairly urban area, Framingham Massachusetts. I was flying with MITSA out of the Norfolk MA airport and went north on a sketchy day after Rick Sheppe commanded simply "don't land back here" (his way of cutting the apron strings). I don't remember much of the flight except near the end I worked a thermal off the GM Framingham Assembly Plant for a while but could not get away the area and landed without incident in a Middle School athletic field. Rick, ever the practical joker arrived after an hour or two without the trailer. When I asked where the trailer was he responded, "Darn, I knew I had forgotten something!" He had hidden the trailer around the corner from the field. Rick remains a lifelong gliding friend mentor and resource. I later went back with the glider and made a presentation about gliding to the kids at the school.
ROY

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

On Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 7:41:19 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
> Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
> training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.
>
> As stated elsewhere, formal training for cross country flying and
> landing out is sorely lacking in the USA.Â* Yes, there are a few places
> where you can go to seek this type of training but, unless you live
> there or nearby, you won't get it.
>
> My story:
>
> I owned a Mosquito and had an accomplished cross country pilot as a
> friend and mentor.Â* He took me out surfing a cold front in central Texas
> and opened my eyes to cross country flying.Â* Following that, there was a
> local weekend contest at our club and I got a lot of good advice from
> the contestants.
>
> I don't recall the flight in which I had my first land out, but I do
> recall the landing.Â* I found a beautiful green field and set up a
> pattern to land and, on short final, it became apparent that it was a
> vineyard!Â* Fortunately for me, there was a plowed field adjacent to the
> vineyard and it was a simple maneuver to side step and complete the
> landing across the furrows.Â* It was a bit rough and the field was sloped
> upward in the direction of the landing so it was short due to the
> slope.Â* There was no damage and the farmer, sitting on his tractor,
> attached a rope to the release and towed me out of the field.
>
> --
> Dan, 5J

My first land out was on a dry lake, like most of my other land outs. I was flying out of Estrella, about 80 miles away got low and was stuck on a small ridge that was pumping a bit of up air. Beat back and forth hoping to trigger a thermal with all the buoyant air. Made a huge mistake, got bored after about 20 minutes and left the lift in search of other lift. I should have stayed were I was until I saw visible signs of lift. Ended up landing on a dry lake. After about an hour I was buzzed by and airplane I got on to 122.8 called him and after about ten minutes talked him into landing and picking me up. He was sure about landing on dry lake, but I told Edwards is used for the dry lake beds, that worked. Flew me back to airport were I grabbed car and another person to help. Went back to glider and a huge police presents, an aircraft crash had been reported. First and only time anyone has asked to see my pilot license. Three other times I have landed at airports other than the planned return and hooked a ride back to home to get car.

[Papa3[_2_]]

May 1987 with probably 50 hours TT in gliders. Club had brought one glider to Blairstown for "away operations" and it looked like a good day to cut class and fly instead. Brought my girlfriend along on the drive for company. Took the club 1-26 up with a weak NW flow. Caught the first thermal and drifted downwind. Caught the second one and drifted further downwind. Struggled with the third one and realized that I might not make it back. Pushed into the wind and found myself over the last big field before a stretch of trees. CFIs had hammered into us to "put it in a field if you're not sure you can make it", so in I went. Ended up landing downhill (luckily it's a 1-26) and used about 98% of the field. Heart rate up to 130 by the time I was done and the dust settled.

Walked to the farmhouse and chatted with the farmer. Turns out his son was the soccer coach at my rival high school. He offered to drive me down the hill to the airport (all of 2 miles). I come sauntering over to the office where the towpilot on duty and my girlfriend are talking and I tap on the back door. She's obviously confused since the glider wasn't anywhere obvious on the airport. Gregg Abbey (towpilot) says "oh yeah, this happens all the time" and off we go with his pickup to retrieve the glider.

Another 50 or so since, none of them downhill.

P3



On Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 8:11:19 PM UTC+5:30, Dan Marotta wrote:
> Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
> training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.
>
> --
> Dan, 5J

[5Z]

> On Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 8:11:19 PM UTC+5:30, Dan Marotta wrote:
> > Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
> > training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.

Feb 9, 1974. My 13th solo flight. Tucson Soaring Club had a wave camp at Rocking K Ranch just SE of town. Tow pilot thought I had an instructor with me so towed out to where there was some weak wave and rotor. I released in the rotor, wandered about looking for lift, then looked back toward the landing strip. Uh, oh, looks pretty far away.

I pointed the nose for home but it just wasn't looking good for this 15 year old. Last 2 miles was all mesquite and saguaros. Saw a N/S road that seemed wide enough and landed. Tagged a tree with one wingtip that left a green stain, but I never felt it. A more experienced pilot did a air retrieve to get it back to the field.

Just looked on Google Maps and some remnants of the strip still there: https://goo.gl/maps/d4EJrfrHpeWNAw728

And my landing spot appears to be here: https://goo.gl/maps/4y3tQLuRVNfcWcCT8

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

On Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 7:41:19 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
> Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
> training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.
>
> As stated elsewhere, formal training for cross country flying and
> landing out is sorely lacking in the USA.Â* Yes, there are a few places
> where you can go to seek this type of training but, unless you live
> there or nearby, you won't get it.
>
> My story:
>
> I owned a Mosquito and had an accomplished cross country pilot as a
> friend and mentor.Â* He took me out surfing a cold front in central Texas
> and opened my eyes to cross country flying.Â* Following that, there was a
> local weekend contest at our club and I got a lot of good advice from
> the contestants.
>
> I don't recall the flight in which I had my first land out, but I do
> recall the landing.Â* I found a beautiful green field and set up a
> pattern to land and, on short final, it became apparent that it was a
> vineyard!Â* Fortunately for me, there was a plowed field adjacent to the
> vineyard and it was a simple maneuver to side step and complete the
> landing across the furrows.Â* It was a bit rough and the field was sloped
> upward in the direction of the landing so it was short due to the
> slope.Â* There was no damage and the farmer, sitting on his tractor,
> attached a rope to the release and towed me out of the field.
>
> --
> Dan, 5J

I had an unusual one with a helicopter, kind of. Was doing my Commercial helicopter check ride, flying a factory MDHC MD 520N. The check pilot was Boeing's chief helicopter test pilot. We had done maneuvers on the airport and were heading to a practice area for more work, flying downwind when the check pilot rolled the throttle off, I dumped collective did a 180 turn into the wind and auto'd onto a road. I immediately heard "What the f#ck was that? I responded, a 180 auto, check airman said, well I thought you would roll throttle on in the flare, to which I said, "yeah ditto, since you are in control of check ride I thought you if you didn't want a touchdown on a public road you would have rolled throttle on." I picked the bird up as traffic was coming and heard, well good job on auto, guess we don't need another one. COMMUNICATION.