Glider pilot reported landing in a field after he realized he did not have sufficient altitude to ma...

Attributes
ACN	1471860
Time
Date	201708
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Sail Plane
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 35 Flight Crew Total 245 Flight Crew Type 6
Events
Anomaly	Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft Ground Event / Encounter Object

Narrative:

While flying in the glider; I was too far from the airport and did not have enough altitude to make it back safely. I identified a large field nearby I could safely land in; did a short pattern; and landed in a field. Other than location; this was a normal landing; there were no injuries or damage to the glider. There was a small amount of crops damaged by the landing; and more crops damaged in moving the gilder from the center of the field to the trailer.the decisions made once the land out was decided were good; and the execution of the off field landing went about as well as it could. The main cause was a poor decision to attempt to get to another thermal without sufficient altitude to make it back to the airport if the thermal did not develop. This type of decision will not be repeated. Flights will stay in the airport vicinity unless sufficient altitude; plus a large safety factor; is available to return in any similar event.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Glider pilot reported landing in a field after he realized he did not have sufficient altitude to make it back to the airport.

Narrative: While flying in the glider; I was too far from the airport and did not have enough altitude to make it back safely. I identified a large field nearby I could safely land in; did a short pattern; and landed in a field. Other than location; this was a normal landing; there were no injuries or damage to the glider. There was a small amount of crops damaged by the landing; and more crops damaged in moving the gilder from the center of the field to the trailer.The decisions made once the land out was decided were good; and the execution of the off field landing went about as well as it could. The main cause was a poor decision to attempt to get to another thermal without sufficient altitude to make it back to the airport if the thermal did not develop. This type of decision will not be repeated. Flights will stay in the airport vicinity unless sufficient altitude; plus a large safety factor; is available to return in any similar event.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.