On Sunday, May 26, 2019 at 4:00:05 PM UTC-5, Charles Ethridge wrote:
Hi all.

First off, I was a fairly experienced CFI and Chief Flight Instructor with a great record, and am now a Commercial Glider Pilot, so I'm not a total newbie in the glider world.

I realize that my initial question may be obvious to some, but here in South Florida, we NEVER land out in fields (unless there is an emergency, of course). We only land out at one other airport, and even that is quite rare.

The question has two parts:

1. Are off-airport landouts common?

I've now heard/read two different philosophies on this. One is from Garret Willat's articles, in which he essentially says that if you are not landing out fairly often, you are not flying aggressively enough in your contests. Is he meaning landing out in unknown fields? or just at known-to-be-safe fields and airports?

The opposite philosophy I THOUGHT I heard in David Lessnick's great webinar last week was that one should ALWAYS be landing out at airports and never on roads or unknown fields....or at least have a KNOWN-TO-BE-SAFE field or airport within your glide range.

2. When landing out, are your gliders often damaged, even just a little bit?

The reason I ask is that I've been flying my glider fairly regularly for the past few years. I fly quite conservatively (compared to what I read in Soaring magazine anyway) and have NEVER damaged it, not even slightly. I am retired and not rich, and so when I think about how much it would cost to get even slight damage fixed, I hesitate to even contemplate doing cross-country flights, due to the risk of damage during landout, but more so due to the risk of my insurance company upping my premiums or canceling my policy altogether. If my glider is totaled by my insurance company, I doubt that I could afford to get another one like it, since I got a very good glider at a great price.

Tom Knauff, in his book After Solo, recommends specific and thorough landout training for the reason he states (p 122):

"During the 1987 Sports Class Nationals, more than 30% of the pilots entered in the contest, damaged their ships during off field landings!"

But as far as I know (Soaring magazine ads, webinars, this forum), no one is teaching such a course. So without confidence in landing out without ANY damage, is cross-country flying thus a rich man's sport?

Charles "Ben" Ethridge

My only comment is that as you grow in soaring you will in all probability landout at some point in time. I have hand many. The old adage is "It isn't 'if' you will landout, it is 'when' will you landout". It is "common" but isn't necessarily dangerous.

Your training and studying should prepare you for this eventuality. There is Bob Wander (thin) book dedicated to the subject. You might landout at an airport (best) or a farmer's field (second best) or someplace else. Your GPS navigation device will point the way to available airports based on position, altitude, terrain, and winds aloft.

Every glider pilot has a minimum safety altitude "mind shift" below which they stop trying to thermal (as it becomes VERY difficult to do so low to the ground) and take the time left in the air to prepare to land safely with a pattern just like you were taught. My minimum altitude is around 1,000 ft AGL. After about 2,000 ft AGL I have already begun keeping an eye out for some good spots.

Best of luck in this wonderful sport.