Glider Landing in Tall Wheat Field
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- 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. :)
My Spot GPS tracker device I wear (orange box on chest) helps me to be tracked by friends and family in real time. You can go to my tracking page by going to tinyurl.com/Bru... Thanks for watching! :) Bruno
Bleeep bloooOo bleeep....That's right, artoo, we're landing in the Dagobah system
When you go to do your taxes:
"Bruno why did you buy $3000 of wheat?"
"It's kind of a long story..."
Hah, I'm actually surprised by how little wheat was damaged - just this narrow channel through it.
@@Wireball #MeToo bro ....
How that small quantity of wheat is worth 3000$ ..??
That one piss off farmer
nah you generally don't want to be mossying around on someones property. capitalism, big old line cut, rat race, for intrusive freedoms. @tiestu
@@marshalcraft "freedoms" isn't a word. no plural to freedom
Hi Mason, Paid the farmer nothing. The local farmer figured we did less than 30 cents worth of damage to the crop.
That was very nice of them. He could have been a jerk. Was there any damage to your glider?
Myself, I would have dropped the farmer a c-note just out of courtesy, regardless if he declined it. It's the right thing to do. Nice recovery and landing though. That last circle back into the valley could have gone bad. Good instincts.
Go figure...The hardest workin' people, being the most reasonable and honest.
Most farmers are nice people.
Well did you pay him?!?!???
Jk anyways its pretty funny to reply to a comment from 7years ago. I can always tell its his videos from the big ol watch.
Saddest sounding variometer ever!
Sinking > Barry white song louder and louder. Going up > Rick Roll louder and louder. You could pick the music. That noise is quite daunting.
Not a single scratch to the glider. The wings and tail come off and we drive a trailer right up to the field and put the glider in to transport back to the airport. It takes around 30 minutes to take a glider apart or put back together. They are made for this kind of thing. :) So glad you are enjoying these videos. They are great fun to make! Bruno
Roads are not wide enough for glider wings. Smaller gliders like mine still have 50 foot wide wing spans! Not many roads are that wide without fences, reflective markers, mail boxes or something to hit on landing. Great question! Bruno
Nope. The damage to the crop in this video was less than $2.00 incredibly!
Bruno Vassel stupid question as I know nothing about flying but found your videos and went down the rabbit hole. How do you get the glider out of a field?
LANo I want to know too..!
@@cardbored_ We have special trailers that we can pull with regular cars to the field, disassemble the glider, load it up and drive back to the airfield.
Not a single scratch. I might have had a few heads of wheat in odd places after this though. :) I could not agree with you stronger, it is the possibility of not making it back and landing in a farmer's field that keeps me coming back year after year...along with all the other amazing aspects of soaring. Take care, Bruno
Hi Jan. Thanks so much for watching and for the question. We also teach minimum heights as well here in the USA. That said, are you suggesting your German racing pilots stop racing and land when they get down to 500m? This video was taken during the 2011 15m Nationals. I was very motivated to try to pull off a low save and get home. This video is not intended to be instructional for a normal off-field landing. :) My personal limits are to always have a field in mind and gear down at 200m. Bruno
My longest flight is an 809 km (502 mile) triangle I flew last week out of Nephi. Was crazy fun! :) Bruno
Came here after your confessions video! :)
Nope. You use the natural lift in the air to gain altitude and glide to the next area of lift. You can do this over many hundreds of miles in a day averaging sometimes over 100 miles per hour! Go take a glider ride for yourself and see how amazing these machines are. Bruno
Bruno Vassel how much it is to rent one, and do you have to be a licensed pilot, or is there training before you actually fly? I am interested in aviation and I might be registered into flight school this summer :). So happy
I though I'd answer your question as it is a pretty old post so you probably won't get a response. Not sure about N.Am but here in Oz you are best to join a club although most clubs do do joy flights. You train within the club and typically our rates are around AUD$45-60 for the tug and around AUD$50-60 per hour for the glider hire. At our club instruction is free of charge. PPL will help but you will need instruction before going solo. Most go solo around 30-40 hours. PPL pilots probably 20-40 hours of instruction.
If a glider lands in a field and no one was around to see it, did the glider actually land in a field?
Yes, because the crops are damaged for the whole world to see.)))
Think about it this way: with wheat crop, the rolling over it only lays it down for a day or two and then it pops back up. Just like walking on grass. No harm, no foul.
+Bruno Vassel Don't lie, I seen you running over that shit like a lawnmower.
blame it on the aliens
Video. It Happened.
Bruno , absolutely love your videos. Even though I know it's going to be a land out , as I'm watching I feel myself tensing up ,with the urgency to find lift. Every little outcropping , every time the vario beeps ,I'm thinking come on , come on .......please give me something !
Keep up the excellent work ! Les Sainsbury
Les Sainsbury Les - thanks so much for the kind words. So glad you are enjoying these videos. It is fun to have them to remember flights from years ago. This flight was really amazing how the lift just turned off. There was no way to stay up - I sure tried! :) Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy some of my more recent videos too. They are much higher quality. Happy New Years, Bruno
Wow thanks for sharing. I'm a private pilot with about 435 hours single-engine land (retired, USN Air Traffic Controller... I haven't flown since our move to Tennessee playing full-time music!). About 4-5 years ago for my birthday, my wife bought me glider-plane/soaring ride at Warner Springs, CA in a Grob G103 Twin Astir. Man it was an incredible experience! Nothing like un-powered flight and using Earth's creations to stay above ground for extended periods of time! And up until last week, i think, watching your videos has made me want to pursue my glider-pilot certification now. Looking forward for more videos for you and thanks again for sharing experiences both "up" and of course sometimes, "down (make for some great learning/visual aides!).
Andrew Zendejas awesome you are thinking about getting your glider rating!!! It is soooo worth it! You will do great.
Thanks Bruno!
5:57 Holy shit. This dude almost killed himself with this turn...
I am assuming this because I saw a different video where he says that this turn almost killed him.
I watched it.
I thought it was Stefan langer
I have a story of a glider pilot who landed on a farm. BUT!!! he landed on the dirt road leading up to the farmer's house (stopped about about 100yrds from the house). The farmer was sitting on his porch watching the glider come down, land and drive right up to the house. The pilot got out the glider in an 'apologetic' manner only to find the farmer had already poured an extra glass of Whiskey and told the pilot to come sit and have a drink.
.
You can just imagine the retrieval crew arriving to find the pilot and farmer sitting down and still drinking by the time they arrived.
.
God bless them farmers.
r2d2 sounds scared
Wow! Another nail biter, but such a great learning experience for the rest of us wannabes. Only got my private in glider, but love the sport (even thought all I do is circle over the local county jail). The roof is metal and it heats the air just right. :). Thanks again for the video and keep 'em coming.
You couldn't have picked a more beautiful spot for an outstanding outlanding!
I always learn a lot from watching others' out-landings. I've been flying for a few years now and have only landed out on airfields; I'm overdue!! Thanks for posting!
Thanks so much for watching and commenting Coy. So glad to hear you are enjoying my videos. They are a blast to make and share. Take care, Bruno
I'm impressed with how long you were able to float over the field before you set her down. amazing 😎
That sounds like a broken R2 unit :D
LOL!!! Awwww! :-) Cute.
Nocturnalcan ha ha that’s exactly what I was thinking the whole time
As a cross country glider pilot & wheat grower I was shocked by this video. I have done 35 outlandings mostly in Ireland where the hedges are high and the fields are small. Almost zero planning went into choosing the landing site, with lots of alternative choices of short grass the pilot didn't do a proper circuit & landing. Had he done a circuit he would have had time to assertain that this was a longer crop than the surrounding paddocks. I don't think this was wheat, more like a fodder crop grown in cattle country!
Gee....what a charitable fellow you are *roll eyes*.
Bruno, nice to see you get it down safe and sound. I love watching your videos....makes me wish I could afford to go gliding again :)
good work - nice landing; you are alive; no broken bones; no blood in the paddock; no broken glider; well placed to load into the trailer; no great loss to the farmer; probably got a cup of tea while you waited for the ground crew. I don't have my out-landing endorsement yet ... I have a lak 12 - but when I get the endorsement and go cross country, I hope I can do as well as that.
I picked the field well before the last circle. In fact, I circled the field several times to really get a good idea about it and see it from all angles before then going in to land. Sorry I wasn't explaining a lot during that but when it gets real important I perform my best I tend to get quiet. :) Thanks so much for watching and so sorry to hear about your friend. Best regards, Bruno
Funny, as an almost-glider-pilot (19 playing-safe solo flights, chicken heart), I noticed this, and it struck me, how sensible, to use the height for recon. Always presumed it was mad stretching for the best spot.
Hi Bruno!
I really enjoy your channel! This particular one left me a bit breathless. See, I have never landed out so far. And I am not curious....
Must be a hell of a nerve recking time...
Congratulations on your safe landing!
Don't pay attention on some really nasty comments here!!
Many happy landings
PF
Now we know what has been making those weird crop circles everyone thought they were from flying saucers turns out it was just Bruno's glider👍😁
bloody good landing Bruno well done i hope you have many more good flights and landings on the runways and i like your commentary...
As a (former) glider I really like this video. Glued to my chair! I could really feel the excitement of having to land in unknown terrain. Pick your choice and pray it is the right choice. Even not flying but watching the video, I can feel the thrill!
You are right. Cut it waaaaay too close. Lesson learned. Thanks for watching. Bruno
Luck and guessing. Also on many days the clouds actually show you where many of the thermals are. If it were super easy 100% of the time the sport of gliding would not be anywhere near as fun. The risk of landing out in a farmer's field like in this video is what keeps the sport exciting and challenging.
Excellent study of how to rescue and difficult situation. Nice landing. Better safety against crop.
So Bruno can you sort of go over the logistics of landing out? Do you have a team waiting to hear from you or are they in chase mode following you? In this case with a field that has been planted and growing what is the typical reaction of farmers? Do you care some extra hundreds in case you have to buy your way out of a pissed farmers field? Finally I did 't see that fence until you were nearly stopped, is there a. Break on your main wheel to help you stop short if you need to? I would assume if so it would just skid but that fence was looking kinda scary as you finished rolling. Sorry just a few questions that struck me after watching this.
hey, obviously i am not bruno but i am a glider pilot,
so to begin with you don't have a team waiting for you nor anybody chasing you down but when you radio in or call a friend back at the club people are often willing to travel to come get you and they round up the most suitable group for the job currently at the club.
the typical reaction of farmers are as you can expect surprised but 9/10 times the farmer or person who owns the land are okay with it and offer you some tea or a cold beer at their house, if the farmer reckons there's any damage to the field such as a fence broke or wheat he/she will send you a bill.
and yes in most modern gliders/sailplanes there is a wheel brake on the main wheel and if you land on a runway or a normal grass field it wont skid they're relatively effective unless its a wet winter over here in the uk and the field is wet and damp you may slide. :)
@@jamescharley7636 One pilot at my club (in Canada) has landed out a few times on x-country. 3 times at Mennonite farms. They should make him an honorary member. Each time they were great about it. He let's the excited kids on the farm sit inside the cockpit while waiting for recovery and all is good.
I'd have taken the wheat field too. The ploughed field could have ripped the wheel off the glider. I don't say that it would, just that it could, if soft enough.
Worst case it rips the covers of the wheel of, and it usualy doesn't. In germany you are teached to always choose brown over green, of course its better if the field is freshly harvested and not yet plowed. But with the green fields you never really know how high that stuff is and if you touch the crops with one wing just slightly earlier than with the other you gonna spin and rip much more off than just the wheel covers, like the whole tail.
@@schwarzarne And how much cost a repair and a new one? Seems expensive as fck.
@@mrstxx2048 If that happens the glider cannot be repaired
Should have called for an in-air tow...and who is playing that kazoo?
O
M
G
Great video...just loved the pictures at the end.
6:15 , almost dies .
No flame for the wheat. But yes for getting almost to the ground with gear up (distracting you from the time you needed to control the glider the most), and mostly for touching down with quite a lot of excess speed. Had you spun (very natural with the crop that high), you would have certainly damaged the glider.
did the farmer get pissed haha???
Bruno, I really like this video. I also admire how you are brave enough to post it, not knowing if people would flame you for it. Your comments after the landings are priceless. Soaring is the only flying where it is ok to get high, clouds can really get pilots wanting to fly, and knowing you might not land at an airport or make it back is part of the fun. :)
I like how he was aiming for the only tree in that field
Must say I learn a lot from your vids. If nothing else, the fact that nothing works out 100% of the time, and that sometimes it is what is and you need to decide how to deal with it. Stay calm and keep thinking, and things will generally work out. Thanks for posting.
Holy smokes! Good you made it in safely! I would be soiling my underwear way before you tried running that ridge. Don't fly anymore. Grew up on K-8's and the best performing thing I flew was an LS-4. But this brings back fond memories! Well done man!
Jeff Byard and I landed his TG-2 in 5 ft grass in elmira once, uphill... sure is deceiving Jeff made a perfect touchdown on the top of the grass but... sure came to a stop quick!
I was thinking those mountains looked familiar, confirmed it for me at the end
Not a single scratch. Gliders are made to land in fields and usually there is zero damage to both the crops, if you pick the right field, and to the glider. Thanks for asking. Bruno
Even though this flight was a long time ago, I felt your joy climbing to cloud base then you cut to the end of your flight being so low and still trying to find any kind of lift. Try as you might, you had to land out and I think you made the right choice. I saw the two fields, the road, the fence (didn't see the gate but was looking for one), and the farmhouse. Landing was perfect. Stopping close to the fence and the gate. You and the plane in good shape. Couldn't be a better outcome. I do the same thing when low. Dry my hands with the air vent. I am not familiar with Spot GPS. I need to investigate it. Thanks for sharing and informing us about Spot GPS. No flames here.
I'm thinking it was much better to land on the wheat field than the hard dirt. The wheel would have offered no protection to the skin of the plane. The best sailplane video yet on you tube!
@YMBatal euhh that was probably the landing gear.. the spoilers are the lever below the flaps.
At 11.56 he lowers the landing gear, after that he set the flaps to the landing setting and then he grabs the spoilers to control his final, and he has to pull to extend them, not push.. you can see during most of the video the spoiler handle is in the most forward (closed and locked) position all the time.
Fantastic video Bruno. The scenery is spetacular and the landing wasn't too shabby either ;) Since you and the glider are still in one piece you DID pick the right field! Something that caught my eye in the still photos are the powerlines! I didn't notice that on the video. Just goes to show how hard they can be to spot.
In many films of you I see that your landing preparations are much too late. I flew in Germany France and Spain and have about 20 landings outside an airfield. In about 400m I knew my landing field and in 200 meters above ground, I always switched off the Vario - discipline! After that, only the landing came. No thermal lift could stop me. That is why I'm still alive!
One day you will have problems!
Good luck!
I actually agree with you 100%. Thanks for watching and for the comment.
Otherwise the wing that accelerates (the forward moving wing) gets more lift and starts to rise which will then cause even stronger rotation and in worse case a nose dive with serious injuries or at least that you split your fuselage. He adviced me to be on the safe side land better with full airbrakes applied. This is contrary to what the books say but his advice made sense to me.
As always a very good video and lots to learn from ! Sometimes I am glad that I have an engine in my Ventus...
I have learned, never to worry about where gate is in determining what field to pick
I like the 82LD call the other day i was getting 53/1 in the libelle!!! then i turned around into the wind and it went to 16! out o glide, no lift....
good show!!!
LOL - I know. I knew the fence was there and was aiming for the gate. Once I stopped I realized I cut it way too close. I flew that glider over 160 hours that year and so really felt connected to it and could land exactly where I wanted but we both know it was cutting it way too close. Lesson learned and glad nothing got bent. Bruno
Glad you're safe mate, thats the main thing. Wheat always grows back
Awesome vids Bruno, I'm hooked. I grew up in Poland, in a town with an aeroclub and a strong gliding tradition. When I was a kid I witnessed an unplanned landing in a field nearby and it made a strong impression on me. I always dreamed of getting into gliding someday. I live in S.L. valley now. I think I saw my house in one of your vids. ;-) In fact, I filmed a glider on one of my hikes in Alta. Perhaps it was you. Cheers.
In our flying club we had an outlanding in a very tall crop field. The aircraft stopped within 10m and the right wing was damaged due to the strong forces pushing it back. The tail was the only thing that was sticking out of the high field
Really nice. Amazing how the day died off so quickly.
Most glider pilots have both a cell phone with them and a satellite communications device in case they are out of cell range to communicate with their crew or friends who bring a special glider trailer, we take the wings off, load it all up on the trailer and head back to the airport. Taking a glider apart takes all of 25 minutes. Not as hard as it sounds. Thanks for watching. Bruno
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)
The tones are the electronic altimeter indicating rise or fall in height....the higher the pitch the faster your going up.....the deeper the tone...the faster your coming down....very handy device.
Luckily it isn't that bad. Wheat and alfalfa fields are rolled smooth before planting so they can harvest the crop low to the ground. Not many rocks or holes at all.
I think that at that time of day it might be worth to get away from the hill towards the valley and at least try if there are some evening thermals at the bottom of the hill. At least that is where I sometimes get some last thermals here where I fly.
I don't have personal experience in wheat landings but a very good pilot (Klaus Ohlman) told me that once you feel that one wing catches and the glider starts to rotate you have to immediatly apply full airbrakes.
Man without nerves... I wish you allways happy landings!
i did exactly the same thing. i almost finished the task. I got onto a marginal final glide about 20k out in my dg200. I realised soon that my wings were extremely buggy and my glide ratio was much reduced. about 3k out and 200 feet i realised i would not make it so went into a wheat feild that was just about to be cut. i stopped in about 10m but luckily no damage. out of the canopy all i could see were stalks. 177k out of 180k is so much more annoying than landing out halfway round. nice videos
Agree with you 100%. I cut it too close not leaving room for any error. It worked out fine but I will leave more room next time. Thanks.
dude!!! this is so freaking awesome!! your videos have inspired me soo much! i am now part of a gliding club in northwest england and you vids have been super helpful! some tutorials would be great too!! thanks soo much! :)
You just wanted to take pretty pictures of your glider in a wheat field! You succeeded
“I’m having so much fun! This gamble paid off!” Famous lasts words
Hey Bruno, nice vid! Nice flight actually...! It's easy to judge someone when the "emergency" is over and you are watching a video... the toughest part is while you're up there, flying and searching for a place to land... the wheat wasn't such a bad idea indeed...! Glad the farmer didn't shoot you ;) haha
I can just imagine some farmer opening his door, looking at this guy, stood in front of his wheat field with a plane it thinking what the actual fuck. Love it. Serious question though how cheap could I get a glider for? Like the very cheapest
*In the UK
UKLongboarding A basic glass single-seater like an Astir could had for around £4-5k? Take a look at www.gliderpilot.net/
Alistair Hammond But he could get an old K8 for shirt buttons Alistair :-)
+Jim Ball Uhhh with the K8 you wont get wery far... but the K8 is wery ligth and so it wins heigth easily :)
Who cares about distance? The K8 is great fun to fly. But not fun to fly for long periods. I couldn't walk straight after 3h 29 in our club K8b.
you my man have the best hobby in the world !!! loved every second of that
@YMBatal It's his main wheel, trust me ;) The air-brake handle is just next to the wheel-handle :) And yes, it's the spoilers/airbrakes he uses to control his descent. Actually I was a bit confused at first too, since in the planes I fly, the wheel-handle is placed to the right. This is somehow good, since you don't have to switch hands on the stick to extend the wheel, but you also have the option of screwing with the many handles on your left (flaps too, in the AWS20B cockpit)
Cheers :)
Great video. Great piloting. I would have done the same searching for ridge lift on those hills. Too bad you didn't make goal but it appears to have all worked out in the end. Insane glide and sink rate!
Bruno that video is great. I'm glad you and the glider made it down okay. These are great videos, thank you for sharing.
yep. you cant just pull on a throttle & go UP. you gotta think like a bird. every extra 1000ft feels like a real achievement. your a lucky guy living there with some awsome scenery to fly over. have fun be safe.
I hate that feeling on the ridge when its just not working... and you need it to...
Bruno, at 11:46 as you make your final turn freeze the video and then read the rest of this. You can see the farm buildings in the top left of the field with the culvert running top left to to middle right. I think you should have been able to run a down wind leg along the road and then turned base across the corn before running up hill into the ploughed field. I reckon that would have been far less risky, at the very least when landing in corn land along the furrows do as not to bust the wheel.
Thanks Bruno, really enjoyed your latest video. Fascinating and beautiful stuff.
" its a little bit taller than I thought " - imagine if it had been a corn field. There are so many things that can be a problem that you don't notice from higher up - a tall crop, a drainage ditch, uneven ground, power lines, fences, rock walls, animals, a flock of birds, water soaked ground, hard clumps of ground in a plowed field, trees taller than expected....as Gomer might say, ...surprise...surprise ...
Not a pilot,but I love watching these types of videos. Looks so peaceful up there! Do you compensate the farmer for "harvesting" part of his crop early?
Great documented video story to show the grandkids. Well done!
Bruno: yay safe
Glider: *sad beep*
another excellent video about to watch for lesson "how you desicion an emergency land to where?"....I'm sure it was very helpfull for glider student pilots. Thanks for your sharing and safe flights.
Wow, nice video Bruno.. And that weed was not that high, clearence with the stabilizer is plenty.. Some bad ass winglets you have!
Hey Alexander. Thanks for watching! The orange box is called a Spot. Do a google search for Spot GPS and you will get all the info. It is a satellite communication device that sends out a signal every 10 minutes where my friends and family can track my flight from a web page. Check video description for link. Bookmark it and you can track me live when I fly. It also can send out a help message if I am out of cellphone range landing out like what happened in this video. Take care, Bruno
As ever, excellent video..... I was a bit worried watching this one.
Thanks for sharing.
Pray hard - there's very few of those, sadly! Most of us wish there were more of them as well...
Do they usually mind you landing in their crops?
Very much
R. Powell
Duh, of course they do just u can't just put it in the trees
I would have thought there would be more damage to the wheat field, intense great landing...
Great video! I'm just a rookie glider pilot and never seen an out landing before because I'm not experienced enough to try x-country. You made it look so easy, but I know it was all skill.
What I would like to see is the way you get them out and back to your place.
Well done. Stayed well focused and in control allthe way through.
@bviv Not sure if its the camera, but as you pass the ploughed field it looks pretty flat towards you and sloping up hill from right to left, just my opinion, bottom line is the glider arrived on the ground with you and it in as many pieces as you took off.
That seems pretty short to me....what are people wanting, 6 inch wheat?
Shame about ditching...what was going through your mind as you circled knowing you had minutes left before landing in the corn? do you have to pay the farmer for damge? Is it your glider or a syndicate job? sorry so many questions Bruno, but I'm sure there are many like me who want to ask, Ross.