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


I think this is worth elaborating on. If you're flying in inhospitable
terrain (mountains, desert, etc) then detailed planning of this kind is
important.

However, my experience from flying in the UK flatlands is that too much
planning of this kind is a bad thing. It ties you to a pre-defined
track, and the whole essence of cross-country soaring is to go where the
energy is, and not where your planning said you *should* go. A 15k
diversion is no big deal to stay airborne and see new country.

In my area, at least 25% of the fields are landable almost all the year
(exception mid-June to mid-July when the crops are high, and even then
probably 5-10% are OK), and today at least 50% are landable.

So, if I were flying tomorrow, my planning would cover the route and
airspace. I know that I can land pretty much anywhere - at 2,000 ft I'll
make sure that there are actually good fields around, and around 1,000
ft I'll pick the one (though soar away from the circuit if I can). In
between I'll have a choice of 2 or 3. [For non-UK readers, 5k ft is a
good cloudbase, 3-3.5k is perfectly XC-able]

Once this planning is done, I'll fly in the general direction I want to
go, but concentrate on being in the best bit of sky. I don't care about
pre-planned airfields because I don't need them.

With this attitude, XC is fun and often successful. In the past I flew
the line I drew on the map and landed out because I flew in the wrong
parts of the sky. If I'd insisted on being able to reach the next
airfield, I might never have gone anywhere!

And anyway, landouts in safe fields are not disastrous. Last month I
landed out and was well received by the farmer. This might be because
his wife's mother met her father when he crashed a Sopwith Camel nearby
in 1919. Her birth was due to an outlanding, so I was very welcome.
Friends have been collected too drunk to drive because they landed next
to a party.

My conclusion - don't plan your landout fields unless you really need
to. Too much planning can prevent you making a successful XC flight.