On Sunday, January 26, 2014 4:55:44 PM UTC-7, Dave Springford wrote:
Was it safe? Yes.



As Kirk points out at no time, once he was below 1000 ft, did he not have a landing option directly in front of him.



Was it fun? I doubt it, no one wants to cut it that close.

Is it good for US contests? It depends on the location, Uvalde, Hobbs, no. Somewhere in the middle of Kansas, could be.



But let's look at some other questions?



Was the pilot familiar with the area?

Did the pilot know he had landing options within the last 1-2 km





As has been pointed out on RAS before, many of the European teams do a good reconnaissance of the approach areas to the airport and determine what fields are landable on the approaches to the airport. This kind of preparation on the ground is really beneficial when you are on a marginal glide.



Another thing to consider is that the finish on that task was a 3 km cylinder and according to IGC rules, once you have crossed the finish line you don't have to land at the airport. According to his IGC file, he stopped his landing roll 2.5 km inside the cylinder and crossed the cylinder at 250ft AGL. since he didn't have to land at the airport to get all the points, he had no rules incentive to continue to the airport. Therefore, one could presume that in his determination he had sufficient height to land at the airport.



From what I see in the video, he was right - he could make it.

I agree with Dave on this. Its the JWGC, they might be young but they are good. He had plenty of options and seems to already know where he would be landing. Sure, no one wants a finish like that, but it shows it can be done with prior planning. World Teams scout out all the landable fields ahead of time, not only around the airport, but out on course.
It may surprize you, that some of our top pilots do the same scouting when they go to a US National. Some even arrive early and drive around the task area looking over the fields.

#711.