Your First Land Out

Mine was in 1976 in 1-26 #308 in a fairly urban area, Framingham Massachusetts. I was flying with MITSA out of the Norfolk MA airport and went north on a sketchy day after Rick Sheppe commanded simply "don't land back here" (his way of cutting the apron strings). I don't remember much of the flight except near the end I worked a thermal off the GM Framingham Assembly Plant for a while but could not get away the area and landed without incident in a Middle School athletic field. Rick, ever the practical joker arrived after an hour or two without the trailer. When I asked where the trailer was he responded, "Darn, I knew I had forgotten something!" He had hidden the trailer around the corner from the field. Rick remains a lifelong gliding friend mentor and resource. I later went back with the glider and made a presentation about gliding to the kids at the school.
ROY

On Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 7:41:19 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.

As stated elsewhere, formal training for cross country flying and
landing out is sorely lacking in the USA.Â* Yes, there are a few places
where you can go to seek this type of training but, unless you live
there or nearby, you won't get it.

My story:

I owned a Mosquito and had an accomplished cross country pilot as a
friend and mentor.Â* He took me out surfing a cold front in central Texas
and opened my eyes to cross country flying.Â* Following that, there was a
local weekend contest at our club and I got a lot of good advice from
the contestants.

I don't recall the flight in which I had my first land out, but I do
recall the landing.Â* I found a beautiful green field and set up a
pattern to land and, on short final, it became apparent that it was a
vineyard!Â* Fortunately for me, there was a plowed field adjacent to the
vineyard and it was a simple maneuver to side step and complete the
landing across the furrows.Â* It was a bit rough and the field was sloped
upward in the direction of the landing so it was short due to the
slope.Â* There was no damage and the farmer, sitting on his tractor,
attached a rope to the release and towed me out of the field.

--
Dan, 5J

My first land out was on a dry lake, like most of my other land outs. I was flying out of Estrella, about 80 miles away got low and was stuck on a small ridge that was pumping a bit of up air. Beat back and forth hoping to trigger a thermal with all the buoyant air. Made a huge mistake, got bored after about 20 minutes and left the lift in search of other lift. I should have stayed were I was until I saw visible signs of lift. Ended up landing on a dry lake. After about an hour I was buzzed by and airplane I got on to 122.8 called him and after about ten minutes talked him into landing and picking me up. He was sure about landing on dry lake, but I told Edwards is used for the dry lake beds, that worked. Flew me back to airport were I grabbed car and another person to help. Went back to glider and a huge police presents, an aircraft crash had been reported. First and only time anyone has asked to see my pilot license. Three other times I have landed at airports other than the planned return and hooked a ride back to home to get car.

May 1987 with probably 50 hours TT in gliders. Club had brought one glider to Blairstown for "away operations" and it looked like a good day to cut class and fly instead. Brought my girlfriend along on the drive for company. Took the club 1-26 up with a weak NW flow. Caught the first thermal and drifted downwind. Caught the second one and drifted further downwind. Struggled with the third one and realized that I might not make it back. Pushed into the wind and found myself over the last big field before a stretch of trees. CFIs had hammered into us to "put it in a field if you're not sure you can make it", so in I went. Ended up landing downhill (luckily it's a 1-26) and used about 98% of the field. Heart rate up to 130 by the time I was done and the dust settled.

Walked to the farmhouse and chatted with the farmer. Turns out his son was the soccer coach at my rival high school. He offered to drive me down the hill to the airport (all of 2 miles). I come sauntering over to the office where the towpilot on duty and my girlfriend are talking and I tap on the back door. She's obviously confused since the glider wasn't anywhere obvious on the airport. Gregg Abbey (towpilot) says "oh yeah, this happens all the time" and off we go with his pickup to retrieve the glider.

Another 50 or so since, none of them downhill.

P3



On Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 8:11:19 PM UTC+5:30, Dan Marotta wrote:
Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.

--
Dan, 5J

On Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 8:11:19 PM UTC+5:30, Dan Marotta wrote:
Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.

Feb 9, 1974. My 13th solo flight. Tucson Soaring Club had a wave camp at Rocking K Ranch just SE of town. Tow pilot thought I had an instructor with me so towed out to where there was some weak wave and rotor. I released in the rotor, wandered about looking for lift, then looked back toward the landing strip. Uh, oh, looks pretty far away.

I pointed the nose for home but it just wasn't looking good for this 15 year old. Last 2 miles was all mesquite and saguaros. Saw a N/S road that seemed wide enough and landed. Tagged a tree with one wingtip that left a green stain, but I never felt it. A more experienced pilot did a air retrieve to get it back to the field.

Just looked on Google Maps and some remnants of the strip still the https://goo.gl/maps/d4EJrfrHpeWNAw728

And my landing spot appears to be he https://goo.gl/maps/4y3tQLuRVNfcWcCT8

On Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 7:41:19 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
Describe your first land out and tell us if you had any specific prior
training for cross country flying or for landing in an unusual place.

As stated elsewhere, formal training for cross country flying and
landing out is sorely lacking in the USA.Â* Yes, there are a few places
where you can go to seek this type of training but, unless you live
there or nearby, you won't get it.

My story:

I owned a Mosquito and had an accomplished cross country pilot as a
friend and mentor.Â* He took me out surfing a cold front in central Texas
and opened my eyes to cross country flying.Â* Following that, there was a
local weekend contest at our club and I got a lot of good advice from
the contestants.

I don't recall the flight in which I had my first land out, but I do
recall the landing.Â* I found a beautiful green field and set up a
pattern to land and, on short final, it became apparent that it was a
vineyard!Â* Fortunately for me, there was a plowed field adjacent to the
vineyard and it was a simple maneuver to side step and complete the
landing across the furrows.Â* It was a bit rough and the field was sloped
upward in the direction of the landing so it was short due to the
slope.Â* There was no damage and the farmer, sitting on his tractor,
attached a rope to the release and towed me out of the field.

--
Dan, 5J

I had an unusual one with a helicopter, kind of. Was doing my Commercial helicopter check ride, flying a factory MDHC MD 520N. The check pilot was Boeing's chief helicopter test pilot. We had done maneuvers on the airport and were heading to a practice area for more work, flying downwind when the check pilot rolled the throttle off, I dumped collective did a 180 turn into the wind and auto'd onto a road. I immediately heard "What the f#ck was that? I responded, a 180 auto, check airman said, well I thought you would roll throttle on in the flare, to which I said, "yeah ditto, since you are in control of check ride I thought you if you didn't want a touchdown on a public road you would have rolled throttle on." I picked the bird up as traffic was coming and heard, well good job on auto, guess we don't need another one. COMMUNICATION.