Most amusing land out

In article ,
Matt Keast wrote:

From the 95' Canadian Nationals:

'Scale Landing':
I was crewing in the Nationals that year and my pilot
landed at an R/C airfield a short distance from the
gliding club, no big deal you say except the runway
was only 350ft. long with a 4ft. deep ditch at one
end! The windsock, hanger (which turned out to be
a sunshade) and runway were all 1/3 scale! and looked
like a normal airfield from the air. By the time he
realized the illusion it was to late and he was commited
to land. It was an interesting sight as I drove up
for the retreive (full scale R/C glider?!) and generated
alot of amusement for the locals.

Matt

We have a local "RC" strip here right on the banks of the Chattahoochee
river (Georgia, USA). It's actually a closed municipal airport that is
used for RC flying and has a walking/biking path around it. The local RC
club keeps part of it mowed for their operations, and we use it for the
occasional outlanding. Because it's right in a bend in the river, the
water, mist, reeds, and lush vegetation give the area around the strip a
Jurassic aspect.

Passing rain showers cut me off from home on a late summer afternoon and
I had to put the Libelle down at the RC field. It had only been a small
amount of rain, but the sun was low and pockets of mist were collecting
in the creek beds and river valley, including all around the RC field.
Now, the RC guys only mow about 50 yards of the old runway near the
northwest end, but it being a short strip and wanting to land upwind, I
elected to land midfield in what I thought was normal pasture grass. It
turned out to be VERY tall grass. Like 4 feet tall, with lots of seed
heads. Of course, I forgot to close the air vent. Upon touching down, I
was completely submerged in this green sea of grass. Falling into that
green depth and being pelted by seed to boot, I was lucky not to have
ground looped.The torrent of grass seed that came rushing out of the air
vent right into my face would have been funny on it's own. The glider
picked up a fair load of grass stains on the wings and nose and was
dragging quite a lot of grass stalks with it. The really amusing part
though, was when I emerged from the grass onto the mowed part of the
runway. An older local fellow was biking around the perimeter track. His
back was to me and he had not seen me touch down. He rounded the corner
just as the ship, still at some speed, emerged from the tall grass. The
sudden appearance of the glider startled him and he actually fell/jumped
off the bicycle letting it fall. Later, he told me that it had nearly
scared him out of skin when the glider, in his words, "...lunged out of
the grass like some kind of giant bug". He said his first thought was
that some horrible thing had him.


WB
H301 #19