Are You Ashamed to Land Out?

Yes Coyne you guys have that “Combs� spirit there. I had the pleasure one time of helping him when he landed out on the back side of Mt Potosi. I was coming home from a little 4x4 exploring when I saw a libelle setting up to land on the dirt toad I was on. I quickly got off the road and he set her down right across from me. We had a great time talking about great basin soaring waiting for his crew to arrive.
Dan

I just posted in another thread here.....

I'm "an older fart".... had many hours in a 2-33 or 1-26 before something with "legs"....although did a few ships in quick succession after about 200hrs in lower performance...

I am not making decent pilots in the US shiver if I show up at a contest.
I have pushed glass pilots further when I am flying a 1-26 with basic instruments.

Land out....sheesh.....no clue....maybe 50 times? Worst was a glass ship gear door ripped the hinge....flying next day. Maybe clean green stains from fuselage next day...
Yes, landed in a quarry near Wurtsboro, NY that a later new club member "heard about" (ex hang glider peep) that they stated..."no Frikkin way!!!!"
I was there, did it, tore up mothers company car exhaust to retrieve....glider was fine....

Ashamed?
Yep, sometimes......
Glider flew next day?
Yep.

Does "fecal material happen", yep.....

Stuff happens....part of HHSC Snowbird contest....correctly trained, thou shall be able to place decent....this is the rule thang for 20+ years....

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!

On 3/24/2020 1:28 PM, wrote:
Read the article regarding the diminishment of guys pursuing badges and a commonly held misconception that it takes greater than 30/1 to do xc, another thought came to mind. Namely, is there a stigma attached to landing out within the modern soaring community? Could this be a reason why guys are not overly enthusiastic about xc flight unless they own or have access to a high performance machine?

I think most of you regulars on here know my thoughts on the matter but I am interested in what you guys think.
Dan

--
Dan, 5J

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

On Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 3:28:09 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Read the article regarding the diminishment of guys pursuing badges and a commonly held misconception that it takes greater than 30/1 to do xc, another thought came to mind. Namely, is there a stigma attached to landing out within the modern soaring community? Could this be a reason why guys are not overly enthusiastic about xc flight unless they own or have access to a high performance machine?

I think most of you regulars on here know my thoughts on the matter but I am interested in what you guys think.
Dan

At a National championship held at Elmira I landed out 6 of 9 days ( always in August)in my Libelle. I never flew another National Contest east of Weatherford Texas

The only shame in landing out is having your retrieve crew point out that the perfect field you selected and landed in successfully was right next to a farm airstrip that you never saw!

My first thought is "Of course people are ashamed (freightened may be a better word) to land out." ... at least the first time. It is fear of the unknown. What will people think of me? Will I break something? Will I get hurt? I think everyone has felt this at one time or another. No one LIKpES to land out.

Letting go of the wind sock is a difficult mental hurdle. Get home-i-tis sets in. Landing out is, at the very least, an inconvenience be it a metal & difficult to take apart glider or modern glass one that is easy to do.

What is the solution? Of course we don't purposely train by actually landing out in a field somewhere. The alternative is to mandate spotting with the help of CFIGs good fields from the air and making it seem "normal" to landout. Read the books available! Simulation via Condor?

This training and mental hurdle can be difficult/scary in some regions (mountains, forested, etc) as compared to here in the flat Midwest where just about everywhere is landable.


Bottom line NOTHING is as good training as the reality. And that is a leap of faith sitting alone beyond final glide and getting low.

On Wednesday, March 25, 2020 at 8:08:56 AM UTC-7, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
My first thought is "Of course people are ashamed (freightened may be a better word) to land out." ... at least the first time. It is fear of the unknown. What will people think of me? Will I break something? Will I get hurt? I think everyone has felt this at one time or another. No one LIKpES to land out.

Letting go of the wind sock is a difficult mental hurdle. Get home-i-tis sets in. Landing out is, at the very least, an inconvenience be it a metal & difficult to take apart glider or modern glass one that is easy to do.

What is the solution? Of course we don't purposely train by actually landing out in a field somewhere. The alternative is to mandate spotting with the help of CFIGs good fields from the air and making it seem "normal" to landout. Read the books available! Simulation via Condor?

This training and mental hurdle can be difficult/scary in some regions (mountains, forested, etc) as compared to here in the flat Midwest where just about everywhere is landable.


Bottom line NOTHING is as good training as the reality. And that is a leap of faith sitting alone beyond final glide and getting low.

In the Tucson Soaring Club, we do 2 landout training sessions each year. The first one, we do at paved airports with the airport's support. We tow and release and land at the airport, We usually have a Line Chief at the field to coordinate traffic and help get the gliders off the pavement and back on when the tow plane lands, the the student does an unassisted takeoff, is towed to the second airport where the process is repeated

For the second session, we use 2 undeveloped strips, we inspect the fields for safety, and clear brush as required. These are strips that are on our list of aerotow permitted. On these landings, the student with the supervision of the instructor gets the glider ready and hooks up. The launch is IFR (I Follow Rope), as in our environment it is always really dusty!

This goes a long way to decreasing anxiety of the first landout.

On Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 12:28:09 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Read the article regarding the diminishment of guys pursuing badges and a commonly held misconception that it takes greater than 30/1 to do xc, another thought came to mind. Namely, is there a stigma attached to landing out within the modern soaring community? Could this be a reason why guys are not overly enthusiastic about xc flight unless they own or have access to a high performance machine?

I think most of you regulars on here know my thoughts on the matter but I am interested in what you guys think.
Dan

Not embarrassed to land out. But I AM embarrassed to break my glider. And the two are statistically highly correlated. If you are flying a 1-26 over Kansas wheat fields maybe not so much, a 21M in the Great Basin is a different story.

An important feature of landing out has not been mentioned and the training discussed has not covered it.

The altimeter should be covered during any practice land out. In a lot of places it is worthless and can only give you wrong information. The pilot should understand when they can trust it and when not.

On my first landouts I also noted that after selecting the landing spot and starting whatever pattern (normal is best), I tended to want to hug the field and fly downwind or base way too close and end up long.

Bruce Patton