Highway or Field?

clear_prop said:
Learning to fly in the midwest, the CFIs said go for the soybeans over corn, and land with the rows. Across the rows is a bumpy ride.
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I have been told the same. Sunflower fields are pretty good too. I know someone who landed in in a sun flower field in parachute during her first skydive jump. the riggers were more worried about the chute than her :d
 
Around here a lot of the options are desert. Land parallel to the washes.
 
The problem with roads is wires. You can't see them from altitude. Interstates are maybe a little better, but many smaller roads are crisscrossed with utility wires. Lots of fields in my neck of the woods. My instructor taught me how to distinguish the cabbage fields from the corn fields from up high. :D

Golf courses aren't a bad option either. I almost had my own golf course moment years ago when my spinner failed on takeoff. The fairway looked like a very good option.
 
When we had a catastrophic engine failure in our 172 we were 4 miles from an airport at 1,000 ft. The choices were trees or a road. Nothing else. We chose the road and Leslie landed with only a ding to the left wing from a street sign. Leslie did a great job. I was just lucky.
 
Dana said:
I had to make that decision a couple of years ago. A mile long hayfield right next to the New York Thruway. I considered the highway, traffic was light and I knew there were no power lines, but the field was long, flat, and unobstructed... and turned out to be a swampy field with five foot high clump grass, so the plane cartwheeled upon touchdown. The plane was wrecked but I walked away. If I'd picked the highway who knows what would have happened?
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Gear up or down or fixed !
 
I flew in Alaska once and got some training on landing on roads... which is very common there. I learned that if there's a house... there's probably a power line! Of course we were landing on purpose, with a good working engine, so we had time to circle. It was fun learning to land behind a car, but staying out of sight as long as possible so the car doesn't panic and hit the brakes.

All of that being said... I'm probably choosing a field in an emergency. Less chance of powerlines, cars, people, etc.
 
Landing on the interstate in Naples didn’t work for the Challenger pilots. FO wanted the lake adjacent the Captain overruled him.
Who knows the outcome. The passengers and FA survived.

I know it’s easy to second guess pilots we all do it. It’s beneficial to always be looking for an out though and apply that knowledge.
 
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MuseChaser said:
Human safety is MUCH more important than plane safety. Order of importance... the safety of other people you may endanger including your passengers and those on the ground below you, followed by your own safety, with the safety of the plane being a distant third. In general, seems like a field is the answer to me in most cases.
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Yes. Every now and then someone enjoying a nice day standing on the beach is hit and killed by the wing of a silent plane that instead could have ditched in the water just off-shore. That would be a tough burden to carry for the remainder of a pilot's life.
 
Ventucky Red said:
Field... less paper work..... :cool:
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I recently had the choice between a fresh cut cornfield field and a clear rural highway. Due to a large clear spot in the traffic (at leat 5000'), I opted for the roadway. I could have easily moved over for the field at the last 10 seconds or so. It was nice to have great choices. FAA FSDO got involved but that only added about 20 minutes of phone time and a 30 minute interview. Since I squawked 7700 and declared (even though the approach controller never responded), the FAA was involved, roadway or cornfield. I didn't find the interaction with the FSDO agent unpleasant but I had all my ducks in a row.
 
Oct 2020 landed on 4 lane, divided highway Lancair IV - luckily Sunday am, luckily during a period of low oil prices - so no traffic.
Got out, looked over my head for some reason; a maze of the thickest high tension lines ever seen.
Landing in field would have been very very messy right there.
Broken crankshaft, at a cheek not a journal.
 
The existence of other traffic is an obvious factor in the decision, but my single biggest concern with a road is the existence of power lines crossing them that you won't see until it's too late. I was thinking about this just the other day while driving. I was on a nice road with 2 lanes in each direction with a median in the center. It seemed there were wires crossing about every half mile or so. Yes, you'll find them in fields too, but they just seem more prevalent as a roadway hazard.
 
SkyChaser said:
You are flying a standard trainer, solo, and for whatever reason, you need to make an emergency landing. Your options are a busy highway or a sloping/bumpy field. Which one would you land on, and why?
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I've always used roads, but they're not so busy here in Mid-America.
 
Field. That's definitely the safer and plentiful choice around here in the midwest.

Logic: Roads = civilization = infrastructure = danger. Power lines, cars, overhead road signs, overpasses and such. Not worth the risk to me. Give me the corn or soybeans. Love the airplane but don't care what happens to it in such a scenario; if the field is its final resting place -- so be it.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
Field. That's definitely the safer and plentiful choice around here in the midwest.

Logic: Roads = civilization = infrastructure = danger. Power lines, cars, overhead road signs, overpasses and such. Not worth the risk to me. Give me the corn or soybeans. Love the airplane but don't care what happens to it in such a scenario; if the field is its final resting place -- so be it.
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Soybeans aren't always a safe choice.

www.facebook.com

Aviation Safety Network

A North American T-28B Trojan, N28XT, crashed and overturned in a soybean field when attempting to return to Monticello Regional Airport, IA (KMXO) after it experienced engine problems after takeoff....
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com

There are just too many variables to come down hard on one choice or another. I've personally chosen a field before, with success... but there are times when I know I would have picked a road.
 
RyanShort1 said:
Soybeans aren't always a safe choice.

www.facebook.com

Aviation Safety Network

A North American T-28B Trojan, N28XT, crashed and overturned in a soybean field when attempting to return to Monticello Regional Airport, IA (KMXO) after it experienced engine problems after takeoff....
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com

There are just too many variables to come down hard on one choice or another. I've personally chosen a field before, with success... but there are times when I know I would have picked a road.
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Hmm, that link won't load for me. Just stays blank on FB.
But yeah there's a lot of variables for sure. Only a clear runway is the 'safe' choice.
And just to be clear: I'm not saying it'd be a picnic to put it down in a soy field. But in the scenario we're choosing between the best of bad options :)
 
Based on my personal sample size of one, soybeans with the furrows are awesome.

Not sure what the T-28 was thinking when he landed at 45 to the furrows. Wind maybe?

Don't do that. Land with the furrows.
 
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I know someone who landed his 150 on a busy interstate successfully with no damage. Immediately afterwards, he was able to get the plane off to the side of the road and then traffic proceeded normally. However an agressive highway patrol guy told him he'd need to get his plane completely away from the interstate within two hours (or something short like that) or they'd demo it and haul it away to a junk yard. He called up a lot of his friends, they removed the wings, and were able to get it on a trailer back to an airport to save it on very short notice. From what he told me about the flight, I strongly suspect he ran out of fuel, but was sort of in denial about it.
 
RyanShort1 said:
I refuse to believe that's a given.
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Maybe you read something like this somewhere, “An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.”
1



When Is A Hazard A Significant Hazard?
A hazard is a potential source of danger, harm, or adverse health effects on people or property.
 
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Ed Haywood said:
Based on my personal sample size of one, soybeans with the furrows are awesome.

Not sure what the T-28 was thinking when he landed at 45 to the furrows. Wind maybe?

Don't do that. Land with the furrows.
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Depends on the strength of that wind. And gear. Fixed gear or gear stuck down? More bias to parallel furrows. Gear up, less parallel bias. Thirty knots of wind? Probably into the wind. Five knots? Maybe not.
 
davela said:
I know someone who landed his 150 on a busy interstate successfully with no damage. Immediately afterwards, he was able to get the plane off to the side of the road and then traffic proceeded normally. However an agressive highway patrol guy told him he'd need to get his plane completely away from the interstate within two hours (or something short like that) or they'd demo it and haul it away to a junk yard. He called up a lot of his friends, they removed the wings, and were able to get it on a trailer back to an airport to save it on very short notice. From what he told me about the flight, I strongly suspect he ran out of fuel, but was sort of in denial about it.
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Sounds to me like better answer would have been “go ahead, I double dare you.” State would have been buying me a new airplane.
 
Fields? What a blessing it is for midwest and west guys to have fields. Here it’s hills and mountains, and they’re covered with trees. If there is no road to try, I will look for the thickest, fluffiest canopy of trees and drop it in gently just above stall speed and hope the hand of God is there to catch me that day.
 
RyanShort1 said:
I refuse to believe that's a given.
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You're right, people on the ground that could possibly die because of your choice of landing (or crash site) is not a given, but only a possibility that increases exponentially when you select an area that has lots of people present.

Plenty of examples of emergency touchdowns on roads and highways that worked out great, and others not so great.
 
midlifeflyer said:
The existence of other traffic is an obvious factor in the decision, but my single biggest concern with a road is the existence of power lines crossing them that you won't see until it's too late. I was thinking about this just the other day while driving. I was on a nice road with 2 lanes in each direction with a median in the center. It seemed there were wires crossing about every half mile or so. Yes, you'll find them in fields too, but they just seem more prevalent as a roadway hazard.
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I’ll jump on the necropost bandwagon to add to this…

Compared with roads, fields also give more visual indications when there are overhead power lines. A cultivated field with power lines across it will have poles or other structures to support the lines, and the farming activities will go around those supports. The result, at least here, is an archipelago of grassy, unfarmed islands, visible from the air. Farmers hate farming around poles, so they usually resist utilities putting poles in their fields to begin with, but either way you have a better chance of identifying power lines across a field than across a road.
 
I think a bigger takeaway here is make distinction between forced landing and precautionary landing and that it is ok to land in a field with an engine still turning. While picking your route to preserve and improve options on any attempt to divert. Optimize energy as you go by zooming then climbing as able at Vy. If unable to climb at Vy needing to slow toward a minimum power angle of attack, that is a pretty good sign you should take the precautionary option. Though it isn’t the only sign. If you have to give up options in order to divert, that is also a pretty good sign to take the precautionary.
 

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About 20 years ago the local CAT dealer, whose tremor had progressed , was unable to advance his C210’s throttle fully for departure. It looked like he got it into ground effect and then hit the ten foot high corn.

When we fished him out of the corn, the Airplane was totally intact…beaten up for sure but the Left door was fatally openable.

Corn in the vents, corn “cast” around the engine, everyplace. But he walked away.
 
Fffflats said:
I think a bigger takeaway here is make distinction between forced landing and precautionary landing and that it is ok to land in a field with an engine still turning.
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Precautionary landings shouldn't always be limited to sick engines.

Getting boxed in by weather minus an instrument rating (or adequate instrumentation), the pilot experiencing a medical issue, smoke in the cockpit etc., are other potential reasons to choose a precautionary landing if you've run out of airborne outs, or need to get on the ground quicker.
 
Clip4 said:
Maybe you read something like this somewhere, “An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.”
1



View attachment 154527
A hazard is a potential source of danger, harm, or adverse health effects on people or property.
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Yeah, so take a scenario where you believe the "fields" you have a choice to land in will 95% cause death or injury to your 5 pax... maybe because it's recently rained or something and you know that the mud plus soybeans will flip you over. In an emergency, let's say because you're on fire, not because of a power unit failure, you need to get her down quick and you decide that a road is more likely to get you help quick... that's well within a pilot's discretionary authority to deviate from any rule to the extent needed to meet the emergency.
 
whichever looks better at the time. out in the middle of nowhere a highway might look pretty good with minimum traffic, in middle of houston, well, prob more likely to land on a vehicle. here in texas, you'd be hard pressed to NOT have a flat field near you, hell you could probably close your eyes and land in one. california, easter tenn, highwaqy all day
 
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