Your First Land Out

My first outlanding was a a training flight, flew outside glide, then picked a plowed paddock that was gigantic. Everything went well, except I chose to land long,
I was getting an air tow retrieve from the field, so we had a very difficult push of 300m. When the tug landed, he lost the rings hitting the downwind fence,
so there we were, all looking at each other. Eventually we resolved to,tie the rope to the tug end, and I did my first IFR dust takeoff, an experience in itself.
It’s a funny thing outlanding, I’m very cautious and this reflects in my miserable XC speed. So, I’m on a XC courseflying an LS7 lead and follow with a coach in a V1b
who led me to outlanding height 30k out. He found a thermal, but I could not get the LS7 to climb in it, narrow thermalling in the 7 had a high sink rate, so down I went.
Therevfollowed a fair while of slow XC with no landouts, then I made a mistake, deciding to fly a couple of state comps with an instructor friend and band mate who I now refer to as the GM.
If you’re wondering, it means “ground magnet�. .
First comp day, I fly the first 30KM then hand over at 4,500ft. 15 minutes later I’m back on the controls over a nice paddock at 1000 ft desperately searching. Found 1/2kt at 700 and worked it back to
1200ft, then tried a tiny correction. Bam, thermal gone and into the paddock. Next day rinse and repeat at remote airfield, complete with expensive aero retrieve. We had a day off.
Amazingly, the last day we nearly won with a 2:17 min 327KM under Cu at 11,500 base. We thought our luck had changed, so we went in the next comp, and Bam, same as first two flights, except this time I managed a perfect landing on top of the wheat crop that LOOKED like it had been harvested, as the stalks rose above the canopy, and wheat started shooting out of the vents it became obvious it was not. From then on whenever the glider did a high speed run, a wheat bullet would come flying out the vent system randomly for a few years.

As I had flared perfectly on top of the crop, there was no ground loop, helped by the upturned 20M tips of the DG1000. After that, I went back to single seaters. Eventually, I did a motor glider outlanding check at a later date, but frankly found it
of little assistance, as I always knew I could open the throttle and get away.
My biggest tip for outlanding, always be aware of the kind of ground on track, and if needed deviate to the side of a bad area to stay in range of landable fields.
Think.
Wind
Slope
Stock
Surface
SWER (power lines)
Surroundings,
Stones
Last but not least, when I commit to an outlanding I start saying the safe airspeed our loud every 10 seconds whilst checking the ASI, a practice Imusecon aerotow rope breaks.
Some of the most amazing gliding stories are those of retrieves that went wrong, but that’s another thread I think. Believe it or not, it’s usually a fun adventure, and you meet some interesting
People.