At 19:18 15 February 2004, Bill Daniels wrote:

'Nyal Williams' wrote in message
...
At 17:30 15 February 2004, Charles Petersen wrote:
There have been a lot of responses to my original
post,
but very little
addressing the legalities.

I fly in central Indiana and we have had some landouts
in mostly farming country with few problems.

This could be an urban myth -- but it is possibly
true;
I have heard that Indiana has a law on the books
that says it is illegal to land an airplane anywhere
except on an airport. Scuttlebutt was that the law
was enacted back when engines were not very reliable
and farmers kept getting crops destroyed.

The farmers have been mostly cooperative. I'm sure
that the FAA's distinction between an airplane and
a glider would not make any difference in a legal
decision
in this state on this matter.

I suspect that most of the 'problems' have been in
areas with higher
population densities. In the vast, largely unpopulated,
western USA, a lot
of the land is federal with ranchers leasing it to
run cattle. That which
is in private hands is often operated by hired hands
for the absentee
landowner. In some cases, the land is part of a railroad
land grant dating
from the construction of the transcontinental railroad
and farmed by leasee
who is in turn an absentee landlord. If approached
by someone representing
himself as the landowner, try in a polite way to insure
that this person is,
in fact, the landowner and not someone trying to grab
a fast buck.

Most often, the glider is in the trailer and crew and
pilot ready to depart
with no locals having made an appearance. In this
case, the legal and
proper thing would probably to contact the local sheriff
and report the
'emergency landing' and provide contact information
along with the exact
Lat/long of the landing point although some would,
no doubt, choose to
quietly depart.

In the few cases where I have had the pleasure of meeting
the landowner, I
have been impressed by the hospitality. The only 'problem'
was a Nebraska
farm wife who wanted to delay our departure because,
I suspect, she just
wanted someone to talk to since she didn't get to town
all that often.

Bill Daniels

It helps to be on friendly terms with someone in agribusiness.
As a protection before starting the season, know
in general how much gross income 1 acre is expected
to generate for several of the local crops, and keep
these figures quietly in mind.