First Soaring Experience

Don Hammer wrote:

I can't say that if the prop
stops in the light aircraft I fly I would be able say the same.

Thst's how I handle it (and I guess, most of us do): In a glider, I have
always an option to safely land without any damage to the glider. In a
powered plane, I have always an option to do a survivable crash.

When flying a high performance glider, at any reasonable altitude,
your glide will take you to places you can't see, but yes you plan,
but you don't have to be obsessive about it.

As I said, this depends on where you're flying. In the mountains, you
better be *very* obsessive about it, or you'll find yourself in a very
uncomfortable situation sooner than you've expected. There are
"outlanding field directories" for the Alps, and I have the known
landing options marked on my map. Plus, in the Alps, we do our landing
options calculations with only half the nominal L/D ratio, which
translates to roughly 1:20 for a standard 15m glider. Believe me, even
with this conservative approach, it can get pretty uncomfortable when
you hit an unexpected downdraft.

Stefan