"Steve Hill" wrote in message
...
An off field landing into a tight field, is a completely different mindset
and setup and I do slow my ship WAY down, when I have to land very short.
You give up layers of options in doing so and fully commit yourself to a
different level of risk. But skill and awareness generally keeps us safe.

You are simply trading one kind of risk for another, and hopefully making a
good deal for yourself and your aircraft in the process. Too many pilots forget
the simple formula "E= M * V^2", which tells you how much energy you must
dissipate after touching down at a given speed. Note that velocity is a square
relationship, so therefore you do not have to increase velocity much before you
have doubled the energy that must somehow be dissipated on landing. (Simple
example he
http://id.mind.net/~zona/mstm/physic...ticEnergy.html )

It is good to sit down and plug in numbers for your own bird at various
landing speeds and then you will be far better equipped to rationally make that
particular risk tradeoff when you are looking at a landout.

Vaughn