Mac, I'll call him Mac 'cause that's his name :-), had just gotten his
HP14 and wanted to get some landing practice by doing a couple of 2000
ft tows. I guess that there must have been some miscommunication with
the tow pilot who assumed a 3000 ft tow. Normally, the tow pilot will
deliver the glider to a point such that when the glider releases the
glider will be in gliding range of the airport. On a 3000 ft tow, the
tow plane may venture farther from the field, during the climb, and then
return to release at the proper point - and this is what happened here.
When Mac released at 2000 and turned away from the tow plane, he
realized where he was and how far away from the airport he was and knew
that if he didn't find any lift, he wouldn't make it back to the field.
He didn't and he didn't. Mac made a very nice off-field landing in a
plowed field next to a road.

After landing, Mac had to hike a mile or so to the farm house where he
called for a crew to come with a trailer. When he returned to the glider
he found a bright orange parking ticket from the Hollis NH police
department stuck on his canopy. Now, Mac was not in a good mood.
Although off-field landings are expected and accepted during cross
country soaring, to land out during a local flight generally means that
you screwed up. Mac had screwed up and knew it, and he knew that his
peers would know it too. So when he saw the parking ticket, .....well,
it did not improve his mood.

In due time the crew and trailer arrived and while they were stowing the
glider a cruiser pulled up. Mac grabbed the ticket and threw it at the
officer with the message that the ticket was for a motor vehicle
violation and that the sailplane was not a motor vehicle and that he
would not accept the ticket. The cop smiled, took Macs name and address
and left.

When the glider was almost packed away, another car pulled up and a lady
got out and started asking questions. Only after Mac had completed the
story did he note that she was writing everything down.

"Say, are you by any chance a reporter?"

"Oh, yes, I'm with the Nashua Telegraph."

Great!

It must have been a slow news day because the story made page one. The
story was so offbeat that the wire services picked it up and now every
glider pilot in the country knew that Mac had screwed up. As a final
insult, at Macs EAA chapter annual awards banquet, a new category had
been established - the most parking tickets issued to an aircraft. Mac won.

Tony V.