On Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 8:41:19 AM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.

As stated elsewhere, formal training for cross country flying and
landing out is sorely lacking in the USA.Â* Yes, there are a few places
where you can go to seek this type of training but, unless you live
there or nearby, you won't get it.

My story:

I owned a Mosquito and had an accomplished cross country pilot as a
friend and mentor.Â* He took me out surfing a cold front in central Texas
and opened my eyes to cross country flying.Â* Following that, there was a
local weekend contest at our club and I got a lot of good advice from
the contestants.

I don't recall the flight in which I had my first land out, but I do
recall the landing.Â* I found a beautiful green field and set up a
pattern to land and, on short final, it became apparent that it was a
vineyard!Â* Fortunately for me, there was a plowed field adjacent to the
vineyard and it was a simple maneuver to side step and complete the
landing across the furrows.Â* It was a bit rough and the field was sloped
upward in the direction of the landing so it was short due to the
slope.Â* There was no damage and the farmer, sitting on his tractor,
attached a rope to the release and towed me out of the field.

--
Dan, 5J

My first-

1-26 flight for Silver distance from the then Chemung County Airport, Schweizer Aircraft Soaring School on 8-20-1965, I was 17. Came over high trees at the end of a nice but short looking (from the air) field in full slip and spoiler. I stopped with a very short ground roll and a lot of field in front of me. I think it was an alfalfa field.

Mike "4"