wrote:
Used to discuss GA forced landings in a class I taught. Like the
previous message, if you get to use the airplane again you're twice
lucky.

Obviously a *completely* different thing from plunking down a jet into a
cow pasture, but I've "landed out" a number of times in gliders now
(slow land speed, excellent glidepath control), and there's lots of
gamesmanship in picking your field with regards to winds, smoothness,
etc. We had one of our pilots land out in what looked to be a reasonable
spot, but ended up doing "strike damage" to the plane from small
boulders in the field. Pilot OK.

I used to end all of my OCF flights (in Beeville) with a simulated
engine out from whatever altitude we entered the last spin. A long glide
from SPIN 1 (20-30 miles away?) into high key and down. Got to the point
where if I could take an early initial, I could skip high key and carry
knots into the break and fly a regular pattern. With the right runway
and the right parking spot, I could coast into the chocks from 20K'
without touching the power. Amazing the games bored pilots play to make
things harder.