"Bert Willing" wrote in message ...
Sorry Mark, but Stefan is right.
Outlanding (in a field, not an airstrip) in soaring is not really planned,
but as it is part of the game it needs to be anticipated. The terrain below
you doesn't change that, it changes just the tactics of your
flight/decisions.
If you haven't been trained for it, you are not trained for x-country.
Outlandings happen because of poor judgement of yourself or of the frog
sitting at the meteo office - if they don't happen over a long time, you're
just not trying to get the max distance out of the day (which can be a
personal choice, nothing wrong with that). Remember - good judgement comes
from experience, and experience comes from poor judgements :-)
"Out"landing on an airfield is just another landing.

--
Bert Willing

ASW20 "TW"

To use the power plane fuel analogy a bit differently:

When I go XC, I plan on having enough fuel (lift=altitude) to complete
my task, based on the forecast, etc. If I get low, or the forecast
was wrong, or I screw up, then I plan on using a known airfield (or
sometimes a really good known field) to landout on. This is the
equivalent of having to divert due to weather, unplanned winds, bad
fuel management - I land at a safe location before running out of
altitude (fuel); and I always aim for having a safe divert field in
ranges (just like you keep track on your divert fuel). If, however, I
really screw up and am forced to landout at an unknown field, then
that borders on a forced landing due to running out of gas (for
whatever reason). Sometimes, it may just be an annoyance (good fields
available); sometimes it can be a real emergency (tree or water
landing due to really stupid inflight decisions!).

Like all flying, preflight planning pays off. If you are not
knowledgable of enough good landout fields where you are planning to
fly, then you haven't done your preflight planning. There is
absolutely no excuse for blasting off into the unknown, hoping to find
a good place to land when you need it. If you want to do that, use a
paraglider!

Kirk