On Monday, May 27, 2019 at 9:30:00 AM UTC-7, Steve Koerner wrote:
Roads are to be avoided unless you have specifically surveyed some particular stretch in advance. Besides cars, problems are signs and posts and wires and berms and parallel wire fencing that can easily become deadly if you ground loop into it.

Yes - roads are the worst place to land...unless the alternatives are worse still. Careful scouting can help but won't solve every problem. For instance, there are a couple of places around Nephi, UT where there are pretty long gaps between airports and no cultivation so you are left with trackless desert (often filled with ravines and boulders - I'm told this is where they filmed "The Martian") or roads. Scouting some spots with enough width that markers and high shoulders aren't a problem still leaves you with the chance of traffic if you get flushed in the wrong spot, but it beats landing in a ravine. Many of these roads are lightly travelled - but others aren't - and you can always run into bad timing I suppose.

I would never head out over such terrain without a glide to an airport, but strong conditions can generate strong sink and you can end up running out of altitude and ideas at the same time in pretty short order.

Emergency landing spots are best not planned in the cockpit if you can help it and best not used if you can avoid it, but I get some comfort out of having at least some hip-pocket spots picked out just in case.

Know terrain where you are headed before you head there.

Andy Blackburn
9B