Safe Landing

I've landed out many times, but until June 24th I'd never been greeted by the police, nor found myself talking to a reporter. That was for other glider pilots, especially those whose exploits are detailed in funny books such as Old Dog's "Once upon a Thermal."

I'd some work to do in the morning and arrived at the airport around one o'clock. I wasn't planning to fly at all, having flown quite a lot during the week. Several pilots were pushing their gliders to the line and launching. I questioned this, as it looked like a thick cloud deck was moving in from the south. I went to the DinerSoar and had lunch. An hour later I called Mike Newman on the radio and asked him where he was. "Just going into Jay Peak."

I opened my trailer and rigged. The plan was to launch quickly and go north. It didn't happen that way. By three o'clock I was finally number one on the line. By then the cloud deck had moved in and Mike and most of "The Great White Fleet" had landed. People were saying that the lift had quit. Was I about to waste a tow?

Tow was smooth. I released at 2000' AGL and searched for lift. Lift was there on south facing slopes, but weak, at most one knot. I flew locally for forty five minutes until I'd climbed to 5000' MSL. Heading north to the Moretown bump I lost no altitude. I decided to keep going. Surely with the southerly wind the Hungaries would be working... They weren't.

No problem, there was blue sky and Cu's at Morrisville. Unfortunately, the Cu's marked the lift that Mike Newman HAD worked. I looked for all possible sources and signs of lift. Birds, no birds. South facing ridges, upturned leaves, building wisps under the higher clouds, nothing but sink or half knot lift. The highest I could get was 4000 MSL. I retreated south.

There had been zero sink on the south part of the Hungaries on the way north and sun had been shining on the rocks through a hole in the overcast. Perhaps I could gain the necessary 1500 feet there. Flying along the Hungaries I did gain altitude slowly, but every time I turned I lost more than I had gained. I decided to press on. Near the very south end of the Hungaries I hit heavy sink, probably downwash from the low ridge that parallels Interstate 89, Route 2 and the Winooski river..

Now I was down to 2500' MSL. I checked Phillips Airport on my Cambridge GPS and SNAV. Barely on glide slope, with an 8 knot head wind and rising terrain on the way with few fields, I decided I might hit more sink and get in serious trouble. I would have to climb, hopefully on the south facing ridge just to the north of the Interstate and east of the Ben and Jerry ice cream factory. I needed at least another 500 feet to make it safely to Phillips.

I saw birds circling and leaves turned up. Maybe I could park in ridge lift and wait for a thermal to kick off. I made a dozen passes along the ridge, getting lower and lower. The lift up the hills had been caused by thermals which were dying. I was below the highest hills now, well down into the notch with the highways and river. It was time to land in the freshly cut hay field in back of the Waterbury State Hospital complex. The field looked perfect.

I came in over telephone wires, taking care to fly directly over a pole so I could see the highest obstructions. I kept my airspeed glued on the yellow triangle, full airbrakes to clear the pole with a safe margin. It looked like the second half of the field was the smoothest so I eased off the dive brakes. I touched down and stopped with 400 feet to spare. The field was absolutely perfect, smoother than the grass at Sugarbush airport. Later I paced it out and found it to be 1200 feet long. Big enough that you should lose your license if you can't land there safely!

I wasn't thinking of losing my license however, but I was wondering why the state police cruiser was speeding down the field toward me with lights flashing while I was untaping my wings. I waved to the trooper and kept untaping. Later, he told me that an hysterical woman had seen my glider very low with no place to land but trees. She had called out the mile markers on I-89 above where I had been trying to ridge soar. In reality, I was above 1000' AGL when I made the decision to land, so I guess the woman had been at a much higher elevation than the valley floor.

When offered a ride to the telephone I climbed into the cruiser. Just then a reporter from the Times Argus arrived. It had been a slow news day and he had been monitoring the police radio. The reporter asked me a few questions before the trooper and I drove off. I phoned Debbie at Sugarbush Soaring to make arrangements for the retrieve and walked back to the glider to finish washing bugs off my wings. Soon a photographer showed up and took several photos and the reporter returned and asked me more questions.

The retrieve was uneventful, except that I had a long wait because my car had been requisitioned for a previous retrieve just across the river. I thought no more about my landout, the trooper, the reporter or the photographer until the next morning when I went to the store to buy milk. Sunday Times Argus newspapers were piled up. I picked up a copy, looked in the index for "local news," opened to page A3 and there was my picture, under the heading "SAFE LANDING." I hope the anxious woman is a Times Argus subscriber!

So, what's the secret to getting your picture in the paper after a landout? It's all in the books. Just circle a small town at low altitude prior to landing. And make sure it's a slow day for news. I was lucky, all I got was a trooper, a reporter and a photographer. Others have had fire engines and dozens of small boys.

Tony Lauck

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