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Old May 27th 19, 02:52 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Mike Schumann[_2_]
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Default Are off-airport landouts common and/or dangerous?

This TOTALLY depends on where you fly. In MN south of the Twin Cities, at this time of year there are lots of freshly plowed fields and landing out is no problem at all if you pick a good field. Later in the summer when the corn gets tall, it's a little dicier.

In South Florida landing out is dangerous. You either have orange groves, plowed fields with very deep ditches, everglades that may look pretty benign from the air, but have waves of grass hiding serious coral heads, and absolutely no way to get access to retrieve the glider, or pasture land that has significant obstacles that are hard to see from the air, but which are the reason they are not plowed fields or orchards.