Land Out Procedure

[Mike McCarron[_2_]]

It was mentioned during a talk Kai Gertsen gave at the Region 1 contest
this year that it is a good idea to call 911 if you land your glider
within sight of a road or other humans. The problem has been in the past
that many times the glider outlanding is called in to the authorities as
an airplane crash. What happens next is that some well meaning ambulance,
fire department, and police personell drive through the crop to help
"rescue" the pilot. This of course does much more damage to the poor
farmer's crops than your outlanding.

When you land out, call 911 and inform those people of your exact position
and that everything is fine (assuming you are physically OK) and you are
awaiting your retrieve crew. Let them know that no assistance is wanted
or required and that all appropriate authorities be notified of same. I
have done this myself and the 911 people are only too glad to get this
information so that they can save their assistance for those who truly
need it.

[HL Falbaum]

"Mike McCarron" > wrote in message
...
> It was mentioned during a talk Kai Gertsen gave at the Region 1 contest
> this year that it is a good idea to call 911 if you land your glider
> within sight of a road or other humans. The problem has been in the past
> that many times the glider outlanding is called in to the authorities as
> an airplane crash. What happens next is that some well meaning ambulance,
> fire department, and police personell drive through the crop to help
> "rescue" the pilot. This of course does much more damage to the poor
> farmer's crops than your outlanding.
>
> When you land out, call 911 and inform those people of your exact position
> and that everything is fine (assuming you are physically OK) and you are
> awaiting your retrieve crew. Let them know that no assistance is wanted
> or required and that all appropriate authorities be notified of same. I
> have done this myself and the 911 people are only too glad to get this
> information so that they can save their assistance for those who truly
> need it.
>

Good Idea!
This year at Cordele, GA (USA) 911 was called multiple times - Though the
inhabitants of the task area who have lived there a while are fully aware of
what gliders do---newcomers are not--.

The 911 dispatchers called the Airport multiple times, and finally asked the
contesants to call 911 on landing, to assure they are OK. After all,
occasionally, someone does get hurt in a landout, so they must respond if
called.

Could save someone else if the emergency crews are diverted to a
non-emegency.

Hartley Falbaum
DG808C "KF" USA

[Ralph Jones[_2_]]

On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 19:37:02 -0400, "HL Falbaum" >
wrote:

>
>"Mike McCarron" > wrote in message
...
>> It was mentioned during a talk Kai Gertsen gave at the Region 1 contest
>> this year that it is a good idea to call 911 if you land your glider
>> within sight of a road or other humans. The problem has been in the past
>> that many times the glider outlanding is called in to the authorities as
>> an airplane crash. What happens next is that some well meaning ambulance,
>> fire department, and police personell drive through the crop to help
>> "rescue" the pilot. This of course does much more damage to the poor
>> farmer's crops than your outlanding.
>>
>> When you land out, call 911 and inform those people of your exact position
>> and that everything is fine (assuming you are physically OK) and you are
>> awaiting your retrieve crew. Let them know that no assistance is wanted
>> or required and that all appropriate authorities be notified of same. I
>> have done this myself and the 911 people are only too glad to get this
>> information so that they can save their assistance for those who truly
>> need it.
>>
>
>Good Idea!
>This year at Cordele, GA (USA) 911 was called multiple times - Though the
>inhabitants of the task area who have lived there a while are fully aware of
>what gliders do---newcomers are not--.
>
>The 911 dispatchers called the Airport multiple times, and finally asked the
>contesants to call 911 on landing, to assure they are OK. After all,
>occasionally, someone does get hurt in a landout, so they must respond if
>called.
>
>Could save someone else if the emergency crews are diverted to a
>non-emegency.
>
Better yet, CD's should contact emergency authorities before a contest
starts and give them a briefing about glider outlandings...

rj

[XYZ]

> Better yet, CD's should contact emergency authorities before a contest
> starts and give them a briefing about glider outlandings...
>
> rj

This is a good thought, but it accomplishes nothing.
Im an Engineer in our VFD, and if we get a call of an aircraft down from a
citizen in our redsponse area, we are obligated to go . A briefing that
informs
911 that sailplanes may be raining down in the area does NOT mean that what
the citizen reporting to us saw a sailplane. He probably did, but we cant
take probably
as an answer. The only good answer from the EMS/VFD side of the discussion
is to
call us every time you land out. It eliminates guessing, and doesn't put
EMS/VFD
crews at risk rolling code to a non-event.......
every time you land out.

[Jim Beckman[_2_]]

At 04:26 07 July 2008, XYZ wrote:
>
> The only good answer from the EMS/VFD side of the
>discussion
>is to
>call us every time you land out. It eliminates guessing, and doesn't
put
>EMS/VFD
>crews at risk rolling code to a non-event.......
>every time you land out.

Here's another good idea for avoiding hassles on
landing out. Some years back when the Texas Soaring
Association was hosting a 1-26 Championships, they got
together with someone from the local FSS and produced
a letter, from the FAA, to the effect that a glider landing
somewhere other than an airport was, to the FAA, a
non-event as long as nobody was injured, and no serious
property damage resulted. In such cases, the FAA did
*not* need to be informed. Each competitor was given a
copy to carry along in the gliders.

Such a letter would have helped a few years ago at a
1-26 meet out of Blairstown, where a glider made an
uneventful outlanding in a corn field (about four inches
high). The two young state troopers who eventually
showed up got all uptight and refused to let us move the
glider until they had gotten permission from the FAA (on
a Sunday afternoon). The letter would have helped.

Jim Beckman