Lessons in landing out. For the next few Fridays I will be posting notes from Doc Holidays landing out experiences. Should you have a story and lesson to tell please send it to our Facebook messaging system so that we can add it to the database and post. One of the inevitability’s of cross country gliding is landing away from your home field from time to time. I have unintentionally landed out over eighty times and have decided to record some of my experiences in the hope that they may both help aspirant pilots in some of the planning and decision making processes they face and hopefully entertain the reader as well. Lesson 1 The 19th Hole. A very strong cross wind gusting over 50km/h stopped the whole field from being launched at a regional contest in Potchefstroom. I was lucky enough to have been launched before the competition director pulled the plug and so decided to do the task anyway. The sky was on fire and I managed to fly the first 80 km leg into wind without thermalling and averaged 133 km/h. One weak climb on the 2nd leg convinced me that I should try and thermal only when I turned for home on the downwind leg and although low I achieved the 2nd turn point with an average speed of 168 km/h. One strong climb could get me home at an average speed of 200km/h, so I disregarded the climb of 4m/s on offer and greedily ventured towards a strong looking cloud poised above a veld fire, my cruising speed, density altitude and tail wind giving me a ground speed of 340 km/h. It was not to be- I arrived too low to connect sweetly and connected nothing else over the next 30 km. The sun was behind me and the stormy front shadowed my marginal final glide so I decided to abandon my risky endeavour and scratch for enough lift to get home safely. This too failed because of the turbulent mixing by the strong wind at low levels. It was time to pick a field. Potchefstroom is particularly lacking in fields for about 30km to the West and I had two choices: a strip parallel to the highway which widened out enough at the far end to accommodate a 15m glider, or the Stilfontein Golf Course. The golf course proved more attractive because as a casual golfer I know that they rarely have obstructions such as telephone lines as well as that fairways are usually at least 40m wide. The layout almost always guarantees an in to wind option and Stilfontein’s best option just happened to be the 18th. I fortunately adopted a higher than usual approach speed because of the strong surface wind and found a lot of turbulence at tree top height. The landing was nevertheless short and I rolled to the left of the fairway just short of the water hazard guarding the green. I pushed the glider off the fairway and strolled up to the veranda to be greeted by a panic stricken club manager who had been told that a plane had crashed. The bar was open and I managed to placate her over several gins and tonic. When I called home to ask for a crew, interest lit up when I explained that the manager was a gorgeous 28 year old who found the night life in Stilfontein to be dull. The retrieve was quick and the 19th hole was enjoyed for a few more rounds. Perhaps I should have called for a crew the next morning. Lessons: Greed makes you land out. Approach faster when windy and near trees. Even a blind pig scratches up the odd acorn.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 07:03:32 +0000
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