Does the FAA have written policy WRT landouts?

On 12/22/11 2:39 PM, Ramy wrote:
On Dec 22, 7:18 am, wrote:
On Dec 22, 9:17 am, John
wrote:



It may be a good idea to call 911 immediately after landing out and
tell them that there is NO accident, no matter what their other phone
calls say.

John Cochrane

I had a friendly conversation with the 911 dispatch folks in NH (on
the 800 number I found on the website, not "'911"!) about this issue
after we received all sorts of unwanted "help" with a routine club
1-23 retrieve... including a medivac helicopter, fire trucks, police
cruisers, etc. etc. They did say we could feel free to call 911 as
you suggest. I don't know anyone who has actually done this. It's
hard to believe you could call 911 and *not* get a visit from someone
wearing a badge and a gun, but if it seems inevitable, it's probably
worth a try. The waste of expensive resources on a perfect, safe, no
damage to anything landout was something to behold.

-Evan Ludeman / T8

Couple of years ago I landed in a field next to HWY 580 which is a
major hwy. The landout was easily visible form the road, so I figured
sooner or later someone will call 911. So I did exactly as John
suggested, called 911 and explained that there was no emergency, and
indeed no one showed up.
However I also know of a pilot who did not call 911, waited until the
police arrived, and talked them into giving him a ride back...

Ramy


And Ramy retrieved me from a field once where I landed out after
crossing over I5, a major Highway in the San Joaquin Valley. As I was on
my cell phone to let the gliderport I had take off from know I had
landed out and was OK I see two police cruisers and a county fire-rescue
truck coming at me across the field with lights and sirens. Turns out
that somebody had called 911 and reported an "aircraft crash with
injuries". It was pretty obvious that there was no "crash" and no
injuries. We chatted for a while about how landouts are a normal part of
gliding and we are prepared for them and its not an emergency (fudging
over the fact that this was actually a motorglider with pilot error
induced failure to in-flight restart-oops).

The county radio dispatcher was being a real pain on the radio,
insisting the "crash" needed to be reported to the FAA immediately but
all the on-site police and paramedics (around 6 staff) realized this was
just silly and wanted about as little to do with dealing with
bureaucracy as I did so they eventually convinced the dispatcher to be
quiet (I had to laugh when they all described her as "a pain in the
ass") and we finished up talking a bit more about gliders and they just
asked next time to preemptively call 911 and make clear that you are the
pilot in command and describe the situation. They also wanted to make
sure I had drinking water, somebody was coming to pick me up etc.
checked if I needed a lift etc. I would like to avoid this in future and
would err on the side of just calling 911 preemptively and being ultra
calm and just let them know what is going on. I think that also
potentially helps if you find yourself in the situation with a hostile
land owner--it allows you to say all the usual really sorry about
landing here stuff, but also to let them know you have called 911 to
report the landout may help. YMMV of course.

Darryl