Are off-airport landouts common and/or dangerous?

Ben,

As with most things it depends. I tend to fall in the same camp as Garret. Landing out should be a normal and regular thing. It does depend on your location and fields available. Some sites have plentiful fields and landing out is a non-event. Some areas have limited fields and more caution is required. Damage on a off-field landing should be extremely rare, otherwise the field was not a good one to begin with.

It is important for xc pilots to get comfortable landing off-field. Many pilots have damaged gliders or hurt themselves trying to stretch a glide into an airport when there where good fields they have passed up.

In cross country we often land in fields we have never seen before. As you fly and even drive it is good to start looking at fields to assess if you could land in them. The type of crop, height, irrigation systems, normal fencing, etc. With this your mental map of can develop so that you can have the spatial awareness of potential fields in reach at all times. Even when we are racing we are scanning around us to ensure that there are fields that meet our criteria within reach.

Landing out should not be something to fear, but should be respected. I encourage you to talk with local xc pilots about the fields in your area. A good exercise is to pick on close to home while you are high enough to have options and land in it.