Last year in Scotland I was flying solo in a Puchacz when I made my first
outlanding. That lovely cloud wasn't working after all and when I turned
around I had a thousand feet and hills between me and the airfield which
had somehow moved two miles away! I picked an uphill field and was
sitting in the cockpit sunbathing and congratulating myself on getting it
right when a police sergeant arrived on foot. His constable came shortly
afterwards by car and I was breathalised. It seemed to keep them happy so
I retaliated by getting them to help de-rig. Apparently the Fire and
Rescue Service turned up at the airfield to see if they were needed.
Since then I make sure I have the relevent numbers in my phone when flying
at strange airfields.

At 23:33 10 August 2009, rlovinggood wrote:
I too attended the 2009 Ordeal at Cordele as did Matt and Kirk, and I
too visited a big, flat, field out in the middle of Nowhere, Georgia.
The field turned out to be a very soft, just planted five days prior,
cotton field. Roll out was, ehem, short. I figured the field was a
good one because "AK" in his SZD-55 was already there.

As we were briefed in the contest pilots meeting, I called 911 and
first told them my call was a non-emergency and proceeded to give
details of the landout and my name and phone number. The 911 operator
was professional and kind. No problems. We were eventually visited
by a deputy sheriff and the land owner. The landowner wasn't too
happy about us damaging the crops (I don't know how much damage we
might have caused and I stepped over the rows of itsy bitsy cotton
plants any time I had to walk around. In the end, the farmer and his
two teenaged sons help me get the glider, (wing, wing, and then
fuselage) over to the trailer. The field was much too soft to bring a
trailer into it.

Last year, in another landout adventure, I landed on a former airport
that is now used as a training ground for the local community
college. They teach policemen, abulance drivers, and firemen to drive
through an obstacle course by setting up traffic cones on the runway.
I didn't see the cones until I was on a very short final. At least I
found an area on the runway free of cones and got in without
incident. I pushed the glider off of the runway to the parallel
taxiway and started looking for someone. Even though it was the
weekend, students were in class in the old FBO building. After a few
pleasantries, I was back at my glider waiting on the ground crew.
Soon, though, I was greeted by about five policemen and three or four
police cruisers. They were all quite pleasant and were happy I was
safe and hadn't landed out in the trees anywhere. However, their
dispatcher was quite upset at my actions and he was telling the
responding officers to arrest me. The officers on scene didn't see a
reason to make an arrest and was a bit peeved at their own dispatcher,
saying, "He (the dispatcher) thinks he's my boss, but he's NOT my
boss." Someone did call the FBO operator at the new airport that is
probably a 30 minute drive away and he obliged by coming over and
saying "hi."

Oh, and yet another landout, this one near New Castle, Virginia.
Turned out I landed in a field that was tended to by the County
Sheriff. Big Man and he carried a Big Gun in his holster and he was
not happy because, as he stated: "I've had gliders land in this field
(pointing one direction) and I've had gliders land in that field
(pointing in another direction), but I'VE NEVER HAD A GLIDER LAND IN
MY HAY FIELD!!!" Gulp. Then he continued with "But it is my
smoothest field" (Thank you very much, I smartly picked the smoothest
field to land in.) He finally calmed down and the glider was
retrieved without further ado.

I'm still hoping I can find some summer training camp for collegiate,
all girl, cheer leaders to land in. I'm sure the cell phone won't
work at all!

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA