On Wednesday, June 3, 2020 at 5:10:30 AM UTC-7, Roy B. wrote:
David:
What is the source or reference for this statement?

"did you know that nearly 50% of glider landing fatalities happen during off-airport landings"

I've studied glider accidents for years and have not seen that - unless you are calling low level thermalling stall/spin ins, ridge terrain strikes, and similar accidents as "off airport landings"

Admittedly, a properly executed pattern,approach and landing into a soft field can cause glider damage - but a fatality? Those (in the hundreds of cases I have studied) are quite rare. What I have seen is that the real killer in our sport is low level thermalling - especially in wind/gusty conditions. But that's not a "landing accident".
ROY

My observation came from Soaring Safety Foundation Safety Reports. In most years, we have slightly more on-airport landing accidents than off-airport. In more recent times, there have been a few years where off-airport landing accidents actually exceeded on-airport accidents. For example in 2017/2018, the SSF reported that "more landing accidents occurred during off airport landings (62%) than landings at the home field (38%). https://www.soaringsafety.org/accide...ual_report.pdf

SSF statistics aside, I think it's pretty intuitive that landing at an airport is safer. Therefore, I'd always choose a suitable runway (wide enough!) over an off-airport landing.

I think that many glider pilots are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with towered airports. Please know that public airports are there for all pilots, even glider pilots, to use. You won't discover a ditch or fence on short final.... you won't damage any crops... you won't have any trouble getting the glider out.