Fear of flying cross country

On Jun 27, 10:19 pm, Marc Ramsey wrote:
Jack wrote:
Marc Ramsey wrote:

At our club we had a requirement to
land over a barrier, then get stopped within 500' prior to taking the
1-26 XC.
A reasonable test, if properly organized, but not something to do on a
day to day basis.
Why not?

Because I've seen what happens when a newbie misjudges the distance it
will take to stop, and touches down a bit too late. This may be all
well and good if one has a large grass field,

Wow.
This is the nicest thread, with the nicest people and contributions I
have seen on ras
in quite a while. Bravo guys, and I will pitch in a little also.

There is a difference in land out and
land - away - from - home.
A lot of the mental wigglies, and background peer noise can go away,
if you are willing to make and live with above-glide-slope discipline
to known
airports (or aeroretrievable places depending on your region of the
country).
Airport sized places reduce risk, and social complications.
Get an air tow home. For 50km flights, it may be cheaper than the
friends dinner's
and trailer and gas time.

My first XC flights were in 1-26s (not even mine), and my current XC
flights are
also mostly not in my own airframes. (Thank you to many folks.) I want
to take
extremely good care of the glider(s). I have many land aways. I have
few
landouts, as those are very risky to gliders in CA/NV territories.
All my landouts
have been on places I have walked with my sneakers before I flew
there.
(This might affect my access to pretty airframes?)

Do I stretch things? Not beyond glide discipline with adjustment for
wind
and margin for inefficiency for me and that day's glider. In 30
years, I've only been
seriously challenged on margin twice, and I go places a bunch, usually
in a
twin with a student.

I teach that you need to S.S.T.O.P.P. soaring and plan a good landing
from a
reasonable distance above a known landing spot.

Size(span) - how many lanes of traffic wide do you need? 1-26 about
four lanes, 15Mtr six lanes.
Size(length) - how many times long is it versus its width? That will
get you a pretty
good handle on sizes.

Slope - is there any? Prioritize uphill versus upwind for that
landing.

Texture - airport textures are good. Fields - color, pattern, shadows
tell us more info.
You may have to pick with furrows over into wind or slope.

Obstacles - as you make two or three complete circles around this
place.....
you have the opportunity to observe drift, and be on differing
radials for lighting
changes on fences, wires, trees, furrows, etc.

Point into Wind if you can.
Positive Points - think happy things about this place now that you
have inspected
it well and have a nice Place Picked to Touch, and to Halt.

The others told you, you need to know course and landable spots before
you
leave home. XC dual is always a good thing. Fly a route in an
airplane, and take
the edge off, or practice field evals from the plane, and go compare
data from the ground
after that route flight.

You need to be able to land accurately, always.
This means knowing your factors for adjustment of flare distance and
taxi distance.
(Which a Approach Speed, Approach Configuration (%spoilers),
headwind component,
slope, texture and braking ability of the machine.)

Yes, spot land the heck out of every landing. Pick your flaring place,
know your distance
in flare to a touch spot, and know your braking distance for your
touchdown attitude
and configuration. And for Mark and all of us, yeah, don't scare or
threaten
the home 'drome gnomes while you do this practice.

When you know you are in command of landings, and have a tug pilot
ready for a
breather away from local duty, and have a decent day and your
composure, leaving
won't be so bad. You'll have a great story to tell us in July.

Fly safely,

Cindy B