Cost of Crop damage from glider landing in farmer's field?

As for costs, I landed in wheat 2 summers ago... just a week before the reaping! Near nil damage on the landing, but trampled a 1 metre by 100 metre path extracting the glider, plus took out about 5 square metres of corn turning the trailer around. Damages: $300 assessed by the guy running the harvester, agreed by the claims adjuster.

Was just updating my logbooks the other day, and came up with over 45 actual field landings in about 24 years of XC soaring (not counting grass airports or other official landing places). In all of that time, I've only had one even mildly annoyed guy, and it was because I landed in the half of a hay field that had been raked but not yet baled. He was actively working the half I landed in. After I got his son to help me move the glider to the side that had already been baled, I came back and started working with the son to load bales onto a cart. When he saw that, the farmer turned into my best friend. When it took a while for my crew to get there, he insisted on driving me down to the major intersection to wait for the trailer. Offered us dinner and drinks. You name it.

Other than that, I always follow the advice others have given. Thanks for your gorgeous field that saved my bacon. How's the crop this year. What's in all the fields. Etc.

I have heard of a pilot paying $250 for crop damage. After countless field landings I have never been asked. I had the crew bring a nice bottle of cab to an angry farmer. I usually keep two unused contest T-shirts available as gifts to landowners and their family. Photos with the farmer's children in the glider are a big hit. Dick Schreder used to give away a Sears catalog, but that wouldn't fly today.
Gentleman pilots send Christmas cards as thank you's. Rural mailboxes typically have names and road numbers, so you can surprise them later. Motorglider pilots don't know what they are missing.
Rick

Yep, I had one guy bring me into the house while he made a phone call. 10
minutes later, his daughter comes over.....and he proceeds to tell me we're
ALL going out to dinner (for which I paid, of course).
She kept "ducking" from the window whenever the EMS ambulance drove
by......seems her husband was driving it!

True story.

(she WAS pretty!)

J4



I don't mind the shotgun so much. Its when the farmer tries to force you
to
marry his daughter that bothers me.

Not the farmer's daughter exactly, but a friend landed on a farm owned
by a single gal. She refused to allow the retrieve unless he promised to
take her to di

There was a time when I was single and flying XC, and I never met any farmers daughters. I guess I was picking the wrong fields.

I think most of us motorglider pilots did our share of field landings
before we got the motorglider, and our spouses did their share of
retrieves. My wife says the motorglider is the best glider we've ever
had, because it always gets to where it's supposed be! And, with SPOT in
the motorglider, she's a happy camper indeed.

On 9/17/2012 6:20 PM, wrote:
I have heard of a pilot paying $250 for crop damage. After countless
field landings I have never been asked. I had the crew bring a nice
bottle of cab to an angry farmer. I usually keep two unused contest
T-shirts available as gifts to landowners and their family. Photos
with the farmer's children in the glider are a big hit. Dick Schreder
used to give away a Sears catalog, but that wouldn't fly today.
Gentleman pilots send Christmas cards as thank you's. Rural mailboxes
typically have names and road numbers, so you can surprise them
later. Motorglider pilots don't know what they are missing. Rick


--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)

- "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation Mar/2004" Much of what
you need to know tinyurl.com/yfs7tnz

This thread is very useful for a naive new pilot who's not landed out yet.

Based on my training, I had been planning to tell the angry farmer that my landing out in his field is 'no big deal', that it is a normal and expected part of the sport, and that in anticipation of landing in his field, I had been practicing spot landings for months. I had been planning on telling him that I probably could have made it back to the airport, but (because I'm entirely secure in my masculinity) that I had nothing to prove by trying to stretch my final glide, and that it had been drummed into me that landing in his field was a more prudent choice. In fact my flying buddies had made it clear that they expected that I would land out one day, it happens to everyone, and that they were at the ready to come get me, and that I should never hesitate to land out when the time came.

After reading this thread, I now understand that should an angry farmer show up, that I should act 'shaken up' and emphasize that if it were not for his nicely harrowed field, that I would be hanging upside down and unconscious in the trees somewhere. This gives the farmer a much better story to tell and it's sorta true. I probably will be a bit keyed up, and landing in a soft field is always preferable to landing in the trees.

No more complaining about the news media reports of "an emergency glider landing in local field, that by a stroke of luck resulted in no injuries or damage".

(Just kidding of course.)

Of all the outlandings I've had (lots!) I've only had two that could have gone awry. In one, another glider pilot had landed there, needlessly damaged the crop and departed. The farmer was none too happy to see me. I very carefully de-rigged and went to see him. I told him that I grew up on a farm (true) and therefore knew how important crops were, and how not to damage them. I even apologized profusely for my fellow aviator's lack of judgement. In the end, I left my phone number and told him to call if it looked like there was any damage. I also complimented the heck out of his dairy operation!

In the other, as soon as I said Hi to the farmer, his first words were, "I need the name of your insurance company", because I had damaged his young corn crop (about 2 inches high). Again, I told him about my childhood on a farm, but he wasn't persuaded. I told him that I had a camera, so lets go look and see how much I damaged, so we can report it, and he agreed. All those times that I practiced staying on a centerline while landing payed off.. Didn't even come close to a single plant in 300 feet of rollout! Then didn't step on anything walking out either. He couldn't argue because he couldn't find anything. He was still annoyed, but helped me take it apart. He got an SSA calender from me that Christmas. I later found out that his area was in a drought, and I suspect he was looking for some kind of a payout in a bad crop year. Just my suspicion. I've heard of that happening before.

Bruno, I don't know what you did, or are planning to do but, as was said before, it's an emergency landing, be apologetic, don't try to BS them if it's not true, call the local sheriff if there's a problem and he'll remind the farmer that he's responsible for damage while it's on his property and lastly, let the insurance company handle all payments. They can better estimate crop damage from the pictures that (I hope) you took. If you make a payout and word gets out to the locals, everyone will want a payout, damage or not. And leave his daughter alone, Romeo!

MK