Glider Landing in Tall Wheat Field

This video was taken on day 5 of the 2011 15-meter Nationals out of Logan, Utah. After a tough day getting around the course I took a big gamble and went way deep into the second to last turn cylinder to a very good looking cloud. It paid off with a huge thermal that took me to cloud base. That is the beginning of this video with me giggling in delight. One problem, the day had died (I didn't know this) and I still had 91 miles to make it home...

This video shows pilot Bruno Vassel IV - B4 flying a highly modified ASW20B in the final 10 minutes trying to find lift over a small ridge and getting forced out into the valley because of sinking off the ridge. I spend a good amount of time circling low trying to decide on the field and then landing.

PLEASE READ: Why did I pick the wheat field instead of the plowed field? The plowed field was freshly plowed within the last few days. The furrows were deep and also running the opposite direction from how I wanted to land - up hill. You can also see that there is a large depression running in the middle of the field effectively cutting it in half. It was also much more angled than the wheat field. The only gate I could see from the air was on the corner of the wheat field where I came to a stop within 30 feet. The biggest reason why I picked the wheat field is that I thought I saw the crop was not as tall but we all then saw that was wrong. OK, lesson learned you can not judge crop height in the air other than by color. Glad everything worked out and the glider stayed going straight on landing. Hope you enjoyed and please don't flame me too bad for choosing the tall field, at least I shared the video with you. :) Bruno

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• gliding
• glider
• outlanding
• landing
• field
• wheat
• soaring
• sailplane
• Bruno
• Vassel
• asw20
• airplane

[mechan9]

So the farmer didn't come out at you with a shotgun in hand? lol. So what happened next? Did you have to stay over night in the barn until someone could come pick you up?

[bviv]

@mechan9 Funny, no. I never met the farmer but met his neighbor. The plane did about $.50 damage to the crop the guy estimated so that was nice. My crew got there about 3.5 hours later and we put the glider in the trailer and took back to the airport. Quite an adventure! Bruno

[campy9sp]

Outstanding! Cool as a cucumber on your approach. I was watching on the patio, listening to the vario and watching the terrain, glued to the seat! By happenstance, with two minutes to go, the netbbook battery warning flashed up, adding to the tension. Did it take long getting a trailer up to the field?

[bviv]

@campy9sp LOL, glad you enjoyed it. It was a fun and amazing flight and landing in farmer's fields always adds to the adventure. My crew got lost on the way there so it took them 3.5 hours to get to me. The gate was right next to the glider and we were out of there within 25 minutes of getting the trailer to the field. Thanks for watching and for your enthusiasm. Bruno

[TheGuerilia]

What about the dammage to the field? What did the farmer said?

[bviv]

@TheGuerilia Only damage is an 8 inch tire line over 200 feet. Nothing the farmer was concerned about.

[SoaringAwayFromItAll]

Wow. Great video. Thanks for sharing it, Bruno! It was a bit scary for me, seeing this fence thingy coming nearer and nearer - but the wheat did a good job :) And a safe landing is the most important goal at all. As my instructor told me: There are good landings and perfect landings. You call it a good one, if all passengers can leave the glider by themself. a perfect one means, the aircraft is reusable. So congrats to a perfect one ;) Kind regards, Lars.

[fkot]

What was your landing speed? Wasn't it a little bit too high?

[libelle3]

Congratulations for the video! Once I chose a plowed field and my landing was less than 15 metres long, scratching the fuselage of my libellle.... so I would have selected the same field that you did... In my humble opinion the thing to learn here is that the day finished in order to no repeat it (it´s been a hard lesson to learn for me, as I have to start the race before everybody with my slower libelle), not the field selection. Good videos and better web. Kind regards from Majorca (Spain)

[TheWhiteOwl23]

hey just wondering if you came in a little fast there haha or if it was just ground rush. Also as a powered aircraft pilot i think you guys have balls to go cross country only relying on thermals!anyway great landing.