Bargaining Not To Landout
The genesis of this article was an email question, sent in by a new XC pilot to an XC program panel where I was a mentor. The writer wanted to know if his club’s new acquisition of a higher performance single place glider might mean that newer XC pilots like him could participate in a Regional contest with a plan for “airport hopping” on tasks and thus avoid the challenge of off-airport landings. My response to him is set forth below - but expanded a little bit...
Safe Landing Option in Range
Part of learning to fly contests and cross country in gliders is changing the way that you think about airport landings. What becomes more important than “airport hopping” is the idea of “keeping a safe landing option in range”. In my experience (and in my analysis of hundreds of glider accidents) there is no added safety factor by sticking to airports as opposed to just keeping a safe glide to large farm fields or meadows - of which there are very many in the contest area you might fly. There is nothing unsafe about a well-planned and professionally executed off-airport landing. It is merely "inconvenient." In fact, I have had some nasty surprises landing away at some private airports and at least one recent instance where I was navigating to an “airport”, saw that it was unlandable, and backtracked to a successful landing in a farm field that I had passed on the way.
Cross-Country Landing Accidents
XC landing accidents happen when the landing is rushed, poorly planned, done in high wind, or delayed by thermalling low. Those factors are not impacted by having a paved runway or a windsock underneath you. The most common mistake is “crowding” the field or - even worse - circling right over it without altitude for a real landing pattern. As Reichmann explained, “Those who make a continuous 180-degree turn rather than a square pattern lose sight of the field and stand a good chance of turning in either too soon or too late; in either case, since one is heading back the way one came, the effect of the mistake is doubled. This is one of the most common causes of damage in off-field landings.” [Cross-Country Soaring, 1978, pg. 51] Stated differently, if you can’t continuously see the field you are landing in - you are depending on luck and not using planning or judgment.
The Last 10 Miles
Part of contest and XC preparation is learning where the good safe fields are and getting them into your private database and into your head. It's particularly important to know your options in the last 10 miles (from all directions) to the "home" airport. That's where you are most likely to need a landout option. It's a huge relief having a good farm field (that you recently looked at from the ground) in the database (and in your mind) so that you can measure your progress to both the home field and that landout option. Last season flying with a friend, I got low returning to my home field on a tricky day and watched my final glide margins just evaporate. I simply adjusted my track to pass near a local farm pasture (which I had previously visited, knew well, and had previously mentally rehearsed landing at) and landed out there - just 5 km west of the airport. No big deal and we had the glider in the trailer and back at the club within an hour. You should be prepared to do the same thing at a contest and it will go fine. On the other hand, it's very uncomfortable when you are mentally scrambling to come up with options while low in the last 10 miles.
High Performance Same Risk
Increased performance does not translate into increased safety margins or reduced risk of landouts. A pilot who steps up to a better performing glider does not use the increased performance to have higher margins at the end of the glide - they use the increased performance to begin their final glide earlier while expecting the same ending margins they are used to. Accident theorists call this concept “risk homeostasis” and it explains that people tend to adjust their behavior to maintain the same level of what they perceive as an acceptable risk. As you change the performance of your sailplane, the thing you should be thinking about is “How easily can I get this machine into a small field?" - and not, "Will a few more L/D points avoid a landout?" - because it won’t.
Motorgliders
Similarly, motor glider pilots ( both sustainer and self-launch) sometimes think the motor will prevent a landout - and indeed it does do that - sometimes. But, part of that bargain is increased cost, increased complexity, and a need for even greater planning, organization, and procedure discipline when low - yet coupled with surprise and a lack of recent experience in landing out. I've carried 3 sustainer motor gliders out of farm fields (all pilots who planned well). I've also taken 1 dead and several injured glider pilots out of airports. They did not plan so well.
Accept and embrace that you are going to land out. Learn and plan to get good at it. It’s inherent in the sport that we chose. We can't bargain it away with airport-hopping, increased performance, motors, or anything else.
Stay safe. Have fun. Get better.
Banner photo by Holger Weitzel, aufwind-luftbilder.de
Roy Bourgeois is a well-known US and South African glider pilot who serves as the Chief Pilot for the Greater Boston Soaring Club. He has held several US national records, competed in many US and Canadian Nationals, and has flown over a quarter million XC kilometers in his 4200 hours of gliding. He can be reached at royb@bw.legal