I don't actually disagree with what Alistair and Richard
say, certainly for less experienced pilots.

I at least start looking for landable areas when I
get down to 1500ft. How far I push it beyond that depends
on both the area over which I am flying, and the time
of the year. In Spring when all the crops are very
short, or in late Summer/early Autumn (Fall to our
US friends) when many of the fields have been cut,
most fields will be landable and that is when I will
push on the hardest. In mid Summer, when there are
far fewer available fields I would be more careful.


However there is no reason why you can't attempt to
either local soar a field, or keep hopping along track
as you spot further suitable fields. Although I might
only give up trying to soar at 500ft, I would make
sure that I was a suitable position to fly at least
a partial circuit into a good field.

However I should point out that I am a fairly experienced
'Nationals' pilot with 35,000km, 1850 hours, and with
about 100 successful field landings in my log book.
Many other Nationals pilots are prepared to go much
lower than I will, which is probably why I don't win!

By the way, I believe that at least some field landing
accidents are actually caused by picking the field
too soon and then flying the circuit into it too high.
The pilot then either throws in a 360 and spins in
(nearly killed myself that way once, early in my cross-country
gliding career) or finds that he is not going to get
into his chosen field and has to land in a less suitable
one, or else goes through the upwind hedge.

Derek Copeland

P.S. When I wrote 'aviation fuel' in my original piece,
I probably meant 'Avgas' i.e. gasoline. Avtur as used
in Jet Airliners is not taxed at all in the UK. Bl**dy
unfair if you ask me!
---------------------------------------------

At 21:54 27 November 2005, Richard Brisbourne wrote:
Alistair Wright wrote:

Wow! Things have moved on since I retired from gliding
then! We were
taught to start field selection at 1500ft AGL and
have our field(s) sorted
by
1000ft at the LATEST. I would be doing my circuit
at 500ft, not looking
for
a field. If this is indeed the current thinking no
wonder there are so
many
prangs. I made 20 field landings in my time with
no accidents and no
damage

We still _teach_ that; it's sound advice for any trainee
who's yet to fly
cross-country. Try suggesting that as a hard and fast
rule to (say) a
Nationals pilot and you might find a different view.

The first field landing lecture I attended was given
by the late Lorne
Welch. The way he put it is there are three critical
heights:

a. Ensure there are landable fields around.

b. Have a definite field picked.

c. Make a firm decision to stop trying to soar and
land.

Over typical English farmland on a first cross country,
(a) is 2000 ft, (b)
is 1500 ft, and (c) is 1000 feet.

In a world championships in Argentina, (a) is irrelevant,
(b) is 500 ft, and
(c) when the wheel touches the ground.

That was the training in 1964; it still is.

Most pilots with a few years experience operate between
those extremes: the
probability of an accident is, as always, influenced
by how hard the pilot
pushes his personal envelope.

--
Real name is richard