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STORY BEHIND THE OUTLANDING
At that day I was flying SZD-48M "Brawo" (pimped out Jantar Std 3) taking part in Austrian Junior Gliding Championships in Kapfenberg. It was my first time there and the area was new for me as I had only two days of training before the competition.
I made one bad decision around 20 km earlier which led to ending up in the pretty steep valley at around 900m (3000ft) above the bottom (the video shows only the last phase, something around 150m AGL). I had an option to fly further but in that moment I was above few small fields covered with nicely trimmed grass. Also at that time I was pretty self-confident with my landing skills in short fields like these on this gilder (more then 500h on the type), so I decided to stay. I used my hight to check which one is the best one because I saw couple of options. Then I was doing 360s to lose the altitude, thinking about threats and still assessing my decision. I like to talk to myself aloud when flying glider especially in demanding situations, so you can hear my concerns - am I high/far enough for final, what's the wind direction down there, options for retrieve after landing and so on...
Finally I decided to pull out spoilers and prepare for final approach. There was a pole with meteorological measuring equipment around 2m (6ft) high which forced me to keep pretty steep glide path and because of that I had to use full spoilers and additionally side slip, hence the vibration. It was additionally intensified on the camera because of the lack of the build in stabilisation. Just right before touchdown I realised that the tail wind was stronger then I thought so I left the idea of smooth landing and pushed the stick to put it down as soon as possible and to start braking with wheel brake.
After couple of bumps I parked safely with more or less 80 spare meters (250ft). I made a phone call and my mate Artur was coming for me with a trailer. He was really surprised and called me few times while driving just to make sure that he's driving in the rights direction when the mountains around him was getting bigger and bigger :)
On the next day, when I showed the video to the local guys it turns out that the field I outlanded was in Austrian database of useable fields some time ago but it was removed because of that new infrastructure around it and the length. Modern gliders have a bit higher stall speed then the one manufactured 30-40 yrs ago so they need more space to land.
Fly safe guys and prepare yourself as much as possible on the ground!
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