A few years back I went on a retrieve for a glider competing in a 1-26
contest at Blairstown. The pilot set it down nicely in a field, contacted
the owner and he was cool about the whole thing. But somebody must have
dropped a dime, and a couple of young NJ State Police troopers showed up.
These were young guys, and I suppose they hadn't dealt with anything like
this before. They were adamant that we not move the glider until they had
checked with the ever-lovin' FAA. Even with the owner at hand, they
wouldn't let us move the glider to the edge of the field. We couldn't
move it or do anything to it at all. And they're the ones with the guns.
Finally they got some kind of magic message, and we could proceed, but
they definitely weren't happy campers.

So anyway. Some years back at a 1-26 Championships hosted by the Texas
Soaring Association, they had negotiated a nice letter written by the
local FAA office to the effect that a glider outlanding, as long as it
didn't involved substantial damage to the glider or to structures on the
ground, and no injuries were involved, is a non-event as far as the FAA is
concerned. Each pilot was given a copy of the letter to carry along in the
glider. Such a letter might have saved us a bunch of trouble. I've often
thought of trying to get the same sort of thing from the folks at Allentown
for our general use, but I've never mustered enough ambition to do it.

Jim Beckman