Rough Field Landings

Maule Driver
You certainly bring up cogent points and its a pleasure to see some
coherent thinking on a subject that too many just brush off with the
thought, "It won't happen to me". In the 40 years I have been
instructing, I've had several former students track me down to tell me
that something I told them or insisted on saved their lives later in
their careers. You cannot imagine how gratifying that is for me as an
instructor.
Again, I make no claims to be the ace of the base. I'm just a pilot who
has made so many mistakes and errors in judgement that I survived that
it makes the average pilot look like Chuck Yeager! Pretty difficult for
him and Hoover to admit mistakes though........ggg
I hope this keeps on going as a learning tool even for me. I've never
flown a glider or an ultra light. I'll do both before I head west.
Best Regards
Rocky

Like this?

http://tinyurl.com/4ekj5

Karl
"Curator" N185KG

wrote in message
ups.com...
Here I am with the big stick again. I can't recall anyone discussing
rough area landings or hostile terrain landings in a long time. For
example, forced to land (no matter the reason-you supply one) and you

trees and water? Hmmmm, how about on city streets?

That's the one I think about a lot, where I am in the megalopolis known as
the Northeast corridor.

Highways? Nearly always too crowded for my tastes. Last thing I want to do
is cause an accident on the ground. For my money the big parking lots seem
like the best bet. Malls, office parks, warehouses, there's almost always
one nearby. Most of the traffic isn't moving and good chance you'll get at
least 300' or so before you have to decide what you want to hit first, and
by then my 172 will hopefully be going slowly enough to make it survivable.
If it's a weekend the office parks and warehouses will be pretty empty so
your odds improve a bit and some of them offer 500+ feet of free run and may
even allow saving the airplane, though I've conditioned myself to not think
of that.

What I do wrong is not be so prepared for what happens afterward. 90% of the
time I figure someone on the ground will see me come down and I won't be
outside too long before help shows up, but 10% of the time it might be quite
different. Just walking ten minutes from my house to Dunkin' Donuts this AM
I was freezing my butt off, and wearing the same clothes I typically fly in.

-cwk.

C Kingsbury wrote :
Highways? Nearly always too crowded for my tastes. Last thing I want
to do
is cause an accident on the ground. For my money the big parking lots
seem
like the best bet. Malls, office parks, warehouses, there's almost
always
one nearby.

I used to get a little nervous flying across Phoenix under the class
B shelf at ~1400 ft. AGL until I realized that I was almost always
within gliding distance of an 18 hole golf course, just about anywhere
in the city. There are close to 200 of them. Oddly enough, over the
years we've had more planes land on city streets and highways than on
golf courses.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

I think that has to do with pilots flying from hard surface strips being
afraid of the turf.

wrote:
C Kingsbury wrote :
I used to get a little nervous flying across Phoenix under the class
B shelf at ~1400 ft. AGL until I realized that I was almost always
within gliding distance of an 18 hole golf course, just about anywhere
in the city. There are close to 200 of them. Oddly enough, over the
years we've had more planes land on city streets and highways than on
golf courses.

Golf courses can be a bit tougher than they appear. I don't play but after
considering a few from the air, I mentally flew a couple of approaches on
some. They tend to be hilly, they tend to be surrounded by trees (maybe not
in Phoenix), the good spots tend to curve around, there are lots of people
on them when the soaring was good.

The trees were the main problem. A good rule of eye is to assume you can
touchdown no closer to a treeline than 10X the tree's height. So the first
priority is to find an approach path to that fairway - probably between the
tree lines - but then there may be power lines on the less refined courses.
Then nothing is completely flat or smoothly sloped.

I landed on a golf course twice. Unfortunately it was on the same course
in the same spot - the driving range. It seemed to be the best spot on the
entire course especially because no one was walking around in the middle of
it. The 2nd time, the guys took me up the clubhouse to show me a picture of
how some guy had landed there before. It turned out to be me....

Regarding people and athletic fields and stuff. When the engine is out (or
even idle), there is no way to signal anyone that you are landing. They
won't hear you. It would be real bad to land and hit a pedestrian. I've
landed in a soccer field near Allentown PA that was a shortcut for college
kids going to class. Nother scarier than skimming down the field with a 50
foot long scythe (sp) of a wing clipping along at 40mph at waist height.
No one knew I was there until I passed them.

"john smith" wrote in message
...
I think that has to do with pilots flying from hard surface strips being
afraid of the turf.

wrote:
C Kingsbury wrote :
I used to get a little nervous flying across Phoenix under the class
B shelf at ~1400 ft. AGL until I realized that I was almost always
within gliding distance of an 18 hole golf course, just about anywhere
in the city. There are close to 200 of them. Oddly enough, over the
years we've had more planes land on city streets and highways than on
golf courses.

"Maule Driver" wrote

I've
landed in a soccer field near Allentown PA that was a shortcut for college
kids going to class. Nother scarier than skimming down the field with a
50
foot long scythe (sp) of a wing clipping along at 40mph at waist height.
No one knew I was there until I passed them.


You just have to open the vent window and yell, "MAN ON" g
--
Jim in NC

"Maule Driver" wrote in message
. com...
Golf courses can be a bit tougher than they appear. I don't play but
after
considering a few from the air, I mentally flew a couple of approaches on
some. They tend to be hilly, they tend to be surrounded by trees (maybe
not
in Phoenix), the good spots tend to curve around, there are lots of people
on them when the soaring was good.


One problem you might encounter with golf courses in the Phoenix area is
with a desert design concept known as "target golf."

The course will not have turf all the way from tee to green. In fact, many
courses intentionally put "waste" areas full of kitty litter-esque gravel in
areas meant to be carried through the air with a shot and penalize players
who want to roll the ball onto the green. Makes the course harder but saves
water since you don't have as much thirsty grass.

Feeling good about getting on the ground just past the tee box would turn to
a "GULP" when you find that you are on a par 5 where the designer decided to
put washes or "barancas" across the fairway between the landing areas for
the second or third shots.

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
Chandler, AZ