There is nothing wrong with landing out - as others have stated, it's
like falling down while skiing!

But one has to really weight the risk of damage (glider and/or
property) against the rewards when choosing WHERE to landout. Where
you are in the world, as well as what you are flying, has a lot to do
with what you can accept as a reasonable landing field.

In my glider (an LS6) I prefer not to land in a pasture. I will
accept a plowed/short crop field, if necessary. But I try to always
have an airstrip (anything from an abandoned WW2 field on up) within
range during non-race XC flights - it's just not worth the risk to
land in a potentially rough strip with my landing speed and small
wheel.

In Arizona, when away from the cultivated valleys, there are huge
areas where you can only landout on airstrips. Otherwise, you will
break your glider. Easy decision there - stay high, fly smart, keep
your options open. Here near St Louis, Illinois is all one big farm
field, with airfields and farmer strips every 15 miles, it seems, so
one can push a lot lower and still have a really good place to land.
But with a modern 40/1 ship, little reason to not make it to a nice
safe airfield, with an airconditioned lounge, cute line girls, etc.
(still waiting for that last bit...).

If I was flying a 1-26, or K-8, then my range of suitable landout
locations would undoubtedly be larger, due to the slower approach
speed and tough skid/wheel gear setup. Then again, I might need to
landout more often!

Do I landout less this way? Not really, I still average about 6
landouts a season - they just are all on nice airfields or farmer's
airstrips, where I can usually get an aero retrieve back to the club
field.

Cheers,

Kirk
66