Your First Land Out

My first land out was in a SGS 1-26, 4 miles from the club field. I had taken a tow and felt a big bump at about 1800 feet and thought it would be cool (and save money) to get off tow at that point. Circled back to the thermal(?) and struggled about 6-8 minutes to get any altitude: none to speak of and decided that safety was the best choice. I found the biggest fallow field and set up a good short approach to the field, just touched down past the fence and put the skid in the dirt. 150 feet from the fence, in a big field, with the only gate on the other side. Dragged the glider across the field just as a farmer came up as asked if I wanted a ride to the club field. Iwas fortunate as the club planned to de-rig that glider in the evening for a safari and I didn't have to put it back together.

Never get off tow to be cool!!

Mike B.

It was the first competition flying my 20.5m LAK 12 in the Club Class (severely handicapped). Flew too fast between thermals trying to keep up with the 15m gliders instead of flying to my gliders strengths. So landed up 8km short. Selected my field and remembered the advice from my instructor who said: "for your first land out you select the largest field and land in the middle, the second land out you land close to the gate". Now the LAK 12 is a heavy glider - and the trailer is huge. So I selected the large field and identified what I thought was the gate and access into the field over a railway line. Put the glider down exactly where I wanted. Walked to the edge of the field and realised the perimeter road was on the other side of the fence. The gate by the railway line had a huge padlock on it. There was no way of getting the trailer anywhere near the glider. In the end, the glider had to be towed the entire length of the field because the actual access gate was the opposite end from where I had landed.

1-26 straight-out gold attempt across the Everglades and Big Cypress from Miami Glider Club near Homestead. Summer was approaching and that means the end of good soaring on the Florida peninsula - so even though day wasn't ideal I took a stab. Made it past LaBelle but it took 5 hours - stuck it in a field along US29 which I had driven by recently. No sweat. Detailed in Soaring article "In the Bullpen with Bumpy"...

By the way, I can't help but remember the Rodney Dangerfield joke about the "first time":

"Sex, ah, don't get me started. Everyone remembers their first time, right? I do...I was so scared - I was alone!"

My first land out was Memorial day Monday this week. This was my 4th flight in the Mini Nimbus I had purchased about 2 months ago. It was my first attempt at pushing out on a serious (to me anyway) XC flight. A 44 mile out and return. I had launched from Chilhowee Gliderport headed for Monroe County Airport KMNV. On the return leg a high cloud layer moved in and shut down the thermals and ended landing out at McMinn County Airport KMMI 10 miles short of making it back to Chilhowee. It worked out great because this is where I keep my Vagabond, so I was able to just call Jason Arnold and another one of the local pilots volunteered to pick me up and give me a ride back to Chilhowee to get my trailer. Once I got the glider back in the trailer I put it in my hangar with the Vagabond. I couldn't have asked for a better outcome then that. Here is a link to a video of my flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sucO0Jnm4JI&t=4s


Jim

Mine was also my first flight with a paying passenger. It was in a 2-33 on a day that had some, but not booming, lift and light wind. I drifted downwind (yes, in a 2-33) of the field slowly and saw a cu that I thought would extend the ride. It didn't work and I turned for home. The vario pegged down and stayed there. Even a moderate sink rate would have been enough but it wasn't to be. I probably could have made it for a straight-in but I was directly over a sod farm. I opted for the sure thing and landed on the smoothest field imaginable. The passenger wasn't upset and thought the whole thing was pretty cool. The tug came from the airport (less than a mile away) and all was well. I was embarrassed and an idiot for getting into the circumstance in the first place but was at least smart enough to not stretching the glide in the Blue Whale.