Are You Ashamed to Land Out?

Jean-Claude Killy, a French Olympic triple Gold Medalist in skiing (1968) said that if you never take a fall, you never learn. Gotta push sometimes.

It's not the first landout of the day that is embarassing - it's the second one - especially during a contest!

One of my first contest flights, in a G-102 out of Estrella. Task was basically Estrella to Ryan and back. Pedalling hard to stay with the pack, got low on the way out and dropped into El Tiro, which was conveniently on the way to the turnpoint and even better, could give me a tow to get home. Off tow, spotted the pack heading home and pedalled off after them. Halfway back, here comes a solid status deck from the West. Near Casa Grande, we got to the shadow, and all but a couple of leaders (who had a final glide to Estrella) landed out within minutes of each other. I ended up in a wheat field (in preference to an active shooting range - seriously!), which led to a long, late "carry the glider out of the field at midnight" retrieve by my then future wife...good sign that! No damage done, but we picked wheat out of that glider for a long time after - and it took awhile to pass the club's "Lead C" award to someone else.

I still enjoy a nice landout - but now I really try hard to keep them to airfields...which is easy where I fly now in Illinois.

Of course, that does set you up for some interesting aero retrieves, say at night flying on tow by the light of your iPhone...but that's a different story...

66

I was hoping you would post that Kirk, I dont think any of us, back in the day at Turf, would have been ashamed of our landouts. In fact they are the best of times! Still, I perfer the cold brew and company back at home airfield not to mention the convenience of not having to reassemble for the next days flying 😛

So there were two nuts that evening?

What tow pilot was nuts enough to tow you up into a flight that would knowingly be so late that you had to fly by the light of your phone?

I have a small collection of landouts within 3 km of the field. On my XC class the first dictum was:

"Better a good approach to a poor field than a poor approach to a good field"

Perhaps in some of those cases, I could have squeaked it into the home field by throwing out my margins, or perhaps adding to the stall/spin on final or collision with obstacle tally.

One now gone instructor took umbrage to my landing out in an L-33 which has a considerable record of land short accidents.

On a contest day at another club I landed out in the opposite corner of the 1 mile quadrant where the host club was located. The subsequent panic on the radio was something to behold. And the towplane came over for a look. I finally managed to get in on the frequency that I would phone in my location after filling out the landout card.

I agree on the part about 'ashamed' to
1, damage the glider
2, inconvenience an unscheduled retrievecrew
3, explain to family about late return
4, perhaps pay extra costs (tow or crew)

I don't think there's shame in landing out. I do think most windsock circlers lack the landing accuracy skills, and are rightly unsure about a landout's safety. Landing precisely 'where you always land' at home, is NOT the same as an accurate low energy touch in a pasture.
If you want to test my theory, see how many of your local pilots can touch & stop in a 400ft length of the airport -- NOT at the usual place. This 'game' of skill development got my students all excited to play on New Years 2018. The rated guys had a yard of excuses to avoid joining the event. Video on Antelope Valley Soaring Club's Facebook page.

The 'new' owners haven't been encouraged to develop the precision skill. They haven't seen the variety of weather for landings, the years in some of our logbooks, and don't understand how to develop that visual assessment to a flare point & energy shedding tools. This is a failure in teaching, not in their desire to be a competent pilot.

Just my opinion, from watching a few zillion landings, from the rear seat and from the ramp.

Cindy B

Originally Posted by Dan Marotta

Land outs are adventures in themselves!Â* I've landed out in numerous
plowed fields, a residential airpark, and a couple of airports. It's fun
to have a crew come and help with loading the glider on a trailer and
then enjoying a beer and dinner at some unexpected place.Â* I've also
been on many retrieves and had someone else provide the beer and food!

snip
--
Dan, 5J

I hate landing out but haven't shied away from them and it doesn't deter me from XC. The only damage I've had was a paltry NZ$500 to put right. That was on a 9 minute flight landing out 3 miles from the airfield, D'oh!

As Dan says they're an adventure and that holds true for every land out I've ever had, once I'm on the ground I kick back and enjoy the experience. I too enjoy going on retrieves and positively leap at the chance to go get some of the guys I know because with them it's gonna be a blast!

:-) Colin