plasticguy wrote:

Farmers don't
usually know squat about soaring. For all they know,
your full of poisonous fuel

It's not just the farmers.

One day at the '99 USA 15m Nats, I was trying to fly from the Big Spring
TX turnpoint back to Hobbs NM when I ended up landing at the Levelland
TX airport. (If you look up the locations of these three towns on a map,
you'll get a good idea of the size of the thunderstorm that I was trying
to circumnavigate.) The single runway was closed for re-paving, so I
landed on the taxiway and rolled to a stop on the ramp.

I had time to push my Ventus off to the side of the fuel pump area, call
for my crew on the airport pay phone, and strike up a conversation with
the airport manager, all before the next glider arrived. I knew that
Levelland is only 20 miles south of the Caprock Soaring Club's operation
at Littlefield TX, and so was not surprised when the manager told me
that he had seen gliders land here many times before.

I had dumped all my ballast 15 minutes before landing, but Roy Cundiff
did not pull the cork until he entered downwind for Levelland. I left
the airport office to catch Roy's wingtip as he rolled to a stop, with
half a load of water still draining out.

The airport manager came running up to us. He was on the verge of going
ballistic because Roy's Ventus was apparently dumping Jet-A fuel all
over the ramp, creating a huge fire hazard only 100 feet from the fuel
pumps! It took only a short time to convince him that it was merely
water, but quite a while longer to explain why the glider was carrying
so many gallons of water in its "fuel" tanks...

I was gratified that Roy tried as hard as I did not to laugh at this
man's concerns. And that brings me to this bit of advice: NEVER laugh at
anyone during a landout, unless you are sure that they are telling a
joke that they think is funny.

Gary Ittner P7
"Have glider, will race"