On Wednesday, June 3, 2020 at 1:51:25 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Wednesday, June 3, 2020 at 10:36:19 AM UTC-7, wrote:
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.



David, thanks, that's an interesting statistic. Is it for fatalities, or any accident? I suspect that a higher accident rate for off-field landing is not so much due to the unknown surface, than to the extra demands and stress on the pilot. In that case, a landing at a strange airport may induce a similar level of stress.

The problem is, an off field landing is always going to involve extra stress and many unknowns, unless it is one you have landed at before (recently) or have at least walked. I've no doubt this contributes to failure count, but it is part and parcel of the process. The surface is only one of a miriad of unknowns: is it long enough? is there turbulence or wind shear? what direction is the wind? is it downhill or uphill or side hill? are there wires? is there berm or higher than expected vegetation? All of these concerns are absent or at least mitigated at an airport.

I'd agree that landing at a known field with known surroundings and known conditions should not be much more dangerous than an airport, even if the surface itself is suspect. But that is a small part of the difference. A new to you airport can generate a bit of stress, but nothing like a field you are about to see up close for the very first time.