On Aug 16, 9:42 am, mattm wrote:
On Aug 15, 6:02 pm, Chris Reed wrote:

toad wrote:
If you fly over farm country, then it's a non-issue.

...

And anyway, landouts in safe fields are not disastrous.

I'll second all that advice. I flew for almost 20 years without
really going cross country (I did get 10-15 miles away a few times,
but I was basically within gliding distance). Then, one day 2 years
ago I got caught in sink in the club L33 and got to meet a nice turf
farmer about 3 miles away from our airport. It was the nicest runway
I'd ever landed on! That got me over my internal resistance to cross
country flying.

Later that summer I finished up my silver badge and haven't looked
back. This year I flew my first regional contest and actually didn't
finish dead last! Last month I flew my gold distance/diamond goal
flight.

I have to say that it's nice flying with the PDA software. The
program I use (SoarPilot) highlights all the airports in gliding range
and can do glide over terrain if you need that. However, I do fly
without it sometimes for various reasons (on the diamond flight I
forgot a vital connector and couldn't use it). It helps that I am
comfortable using just a sectional and compass. The 3K/2K/1K rule
works quite well in any case.

ill third it. flying here in Iowa there are fields everywhere. most
are darn flat too. cross country this time of the year is doable if
the cloudbase is high enough. landout options are limited though, the
corn is 10 feet tall and teh soybeans are full too. however there are
a fair amount of pastures and the like where landings can be made.

ive never done XC planning except on my checkride. I usually have a
general direction in mind when I take off and if i have time to look
at the map during flight ill keep track of where I am. the advantage
I have is over 1000 hrs of flying in the state so a lot of the
geography is known to me. I dont need to reference the chart for much
info which allows me to focus on the sky and flying. in the spring
and fall when there are no crops in the fields the entire state is
just like a big runway. landings can darn near literally be made
anywhere. its excellent for XC soaring, plus the lift is stronger and
higher during those times.

hooray for flying XC in the midwest. you guys can have your 1000 fpm
thermals and wave to 30000 feet out west.