Planning for the Retrieve

Every flight in a glider presents a risk of landing off-airport. You only fly locally, you say? In my club, I know of at least 4 off-airport landings in the last 10 years on flights that intended to stay local.

So, you picked a great field, cleared the wires, approached into the wind and landed uphill. The glider is fine, you are fine. Now what do you do? Or, what are you wishing you had done before takeoff? Unlike Australia, field retrieves with a towplane are not normal in the USA, and we never did perfect the snatch retrieve used during WWII.

Prepare your trailer before takeoff

 Is your trailer ready? Besides basic road-worthiness, all the fixtures for loading the glider, wing stands, any tools, etc should be in the trailer before you leave. The most effort your saviors should have to do is to hook the trailer up. If you were really prepared, you could’ve done that ahead of time too. When all the crew has to do is get in and drive to you, they are more likely to be willing to do it again.

Prepare your car before takeoff

Are the keys in your car? The checklists I use to prep the glider for a day of soaring include checking my pockets for car keys at least three times. Similarly, make sure there is gas in the tank and it might not be a bad idea to leave your credit card in case the crew needs to buy gas and food along the way. A post-it note with your zip code will help if the fuel pump needs it to authorize the swipe.

Ground crew considerations

Do you have any idea where you are? We always know where we are when flying but sometimes after you land, you realize you can’t define your location with respect to local landmarks. I try to keep track of nearby towns when I’m getting low. That way when I make the call to my crew I can at least get them started in the right direction. Beyond that, GPS coordinates from your flight computer (Check the format carefully!), a SPOT tracker or similar, or sharing your location via Google Maps or Facebook, are all very convenient and useful modern tools. In a pinch, walk down to the nearest intersection and you should be able to identify the crossroad names. I have even found that if there aren’t street signs, the names of the cross streets are often written on the back of the stop signs at rural intersections.

After the land-out

You remembered your cell phone right? If you are close enough to the airport and other people are up flying you might be able to radio relay. Otherwise, you’ll need to borrow a phone to call someone. Hopefully, you remember at least one friend's phone number?

Flying barefoot or in flip flops might seem cool and comfortable, but you might regret that if you have to walk across a field!

When your 1-hour local flight turns into an all-afternoon effort of contacting a crew, finding a car with keys in it, finding all the parts to the trailer, figuring out where you are, and getting the glider back to the club, you might re-think how much water you take flying next time.

Finally, on the way home, make sure to treat your crew. Some like a steak dinner. My wife Leah prefers Ice Cream. Whatever it is make sure to show your appreciation to the people who are supporting your silly hobby. You want them to be willing to do it again!

Tony Condon has made 63 off airport landings all over the middle USA and at most of the sites where he’s competed. In his early days flying the Cherokee II he landed out a lot close to home, but after moving up to a Standard Cirrus, he now lands out further from home. He is the President of the Kansas Soaring Association and a Designated Pilot Examiner. He competed on the US Team in the 13.5 Meter Class in 2015 and 2017, but avoided landing in Eastern European Fields by flying a Silent 2 Electro.