Landout Laws

Sorry Mark, but Stefan is right.
Outlanding (in a field, not an airstrip) in soaring is not really planned,
but as it is part of the game it needs to be anticipated. The terrain below
you doesn't change that, it changes just the tactics of your
flight/decisions.
If you haven't been trained for it, you are not trained for x-country.
Outlandings happen because of poor judgement of yourself or of the frog
sitting at the meteo office - if they don't happen over a long time, you're
just not trying to get the max distance out of the day (which can be a
personal choice, nothing wrong with that). Remember - good judgement comes
from experience, and experience comes from poor judgements :-)
"Out"landing on an airfield is just another landing.

--
Bert Willing

ASW20 "TW"


"Mark James Boyd" a écrit dans le message de
news:403c579e$1@darkstar...
In article ,
Stefan wrote:
Mark James Boyd wrote:

I think of unplanned outlandings in the same way I think of
running out of gas in a power plane.

When soaring, unplanned outlandings are part of the game. Running out of
gas definitely is not.

I don't accept unplanned outlandings as inevitable. Carl Herold has
avoided them for a long time, by using good judgement
and doing his homework. If I had an unplanned outlanding,
I would really chalk it up to my own poor judgement, just as I would
think of running out of gas...


For different glider pilots, I think different types of
"outlandings" may be an emergency or may be an "abnormal" procedure.

For glider pilots, an outlanding is neither an emergency nor an abnormal
procedure. It is a perfectly normal procedure that you have been trained
for. If it's not, you've got a lousy training and are not ready for
cross country, period.

I haven't trained this. I never executed an unplanned outlanding
flying dual. And I'm not planning on it either...

But perhaps this is just semantics. The definition of
an "unplanned outlanding" seems quite different in the
hostile forests of Truckee, vs. the flat farmland of the Calif.
Central Valley...

"Bert Willing" wrote in message ...
Sorry Mark, but Stefan is right.
Outlanding (in a field, not an airstrip) in soaring is not really planned,
but as it is part of the game it needs to be anticipated. The terrain below
you doesn't change that, it changes just the tactics of your
flight/decisions.
If you haven't been trained for it, you are not trained for x-country.
Outlandings happen because of poor judgement of yourself or of the frog
sitting at the meteo office - if they don't happen over a long time, you're
just not trying to get the max distance out of the day (which can be a
personal choice, nothing wrong with that). Remember - good judgement comes
from experience, and experience comes from poor judgements :-)
"Out"landing on an airfield is just another landing.

--
Bert Willing

ASW20 "TW"

To use the power plane fuel analogy a bit differently:

When I go XC, I plan on having enough fuel (lift=altitude) to complete
my task, based on the forecast, etc. If I get low, or the forecast
was wrong, or I screw up, then I plan on using a known airfield (or
sometimes a really good known field) to landout on. This is the
equivalent of having to divert due to weather, unplanned winds, bad
fuel management - I land at a safe location before running out of
altitude (fuel); and I always aim for having a safe divert field in
ranges (just like you keep track on your divert fuel). If, however, I
really screw up and am forced to landout at an unknown field, then
that borders on a forced landing due to running out of gas (for
whatever reason). Sometimes, it may just be an annoyance (good fields
available); sometimes it can be a real emergency (tree or water
landing due to really stupid inflight decisions!).

Like all flying, preflight planning pays off. If you are not
knowledgable of enough good landout fields where you are planning to
fly, then you haven't done your preflight planning. There is
absolutely no excuse for blasting off into the unknown, hoping to find
a good place to land when you need it. If you want to do that, use a
paraglider!

Kirk

Bert Willing wrote:

Remember - good judgement comes
from experience, and experience comes from poor judgements :-)

This is true. However, I prefer to get good judgement from
the experience and poor judgement...OF OTHER PILOTS! :P

I don't feel the need to repeat Carl Herold's early
experiences damaging gliders to come up with his
conclusions. Because of my opposable thumbs and
mouse, I can simply read about the dangers he describes
and spend a bit more effort to avoid his mistakes.

I've also taken his comments about ridge soaring to
heart. Perhaps this limits my excitement or capabilities,
but that's the part of the risk-acceptance spectrum where
I fall...and I still don't find my soaring particularly
conservative.

I suppose for every pilot, what chances you are willing to
take is a very personal choice, and requires a lot
of self-evaluation. This is one of the best aspects of
soaring: it is an excellent mirror...