A glider instructor reported loosing sight of the grass landing area next to a hard runway area and ...

Narrative:

I was conducting flight instruction from the rear seat of a glider with a student pilot. The overall flight was uneventful up to the final stages of the landing. My original intention was to land to the south on a grass strip; there are actually three runways in parallel; an eastern-most paved runway used by power traffic; a middle; more narrow paved runway used for glider launches and the western-most grass strip. A tow plane and glider were staged on the middle runway in preparation for a launch. As I made the right turn from base to final; I lost sight of the intended landing zone and was unable to identify it clearly upon short final. As an alternative; I elected to land on the strip of grass between the paved and the more-narrow paved runway. However; just prior to touchdown; I realized that I was coming needlessly close to a small power plane which was taking off from the paved runway. Nevertheless; the power plane was able to complete its takeoff; and I was able to roll out while veering away from the active runway and avoiding the staged tow plane and glider. Several factors contributed to this event. I am a relative newcomer to this airport; with six landings prior to this flight; so my familiarity with the appearance of the landing zone from all angles could be better. The reduced visibility from the rear seat was also a contribution; as was the additional traffic. Events such as this can be avoided in the future by gaining additional experience with the layout of the airport; maintaining visual acquisition of the intended landing zone; and paying better attention to other aircraft and their movements.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Glider Instructor reported loosing sight of the grass landing area next to a hard runway area and taking evasive action to resolve a conflict with an aircraft on its takeoff roll.

Narrative: I was conducting flight instruction from the rear seat of a glider with a student pilot. The overall flight was uneventful up to the final stages of the landing. My original intention was to land to the south on a grass strip; there are actually three runways in parallel; an eastern-most paved runway used by power traffic; a middle; more narrow paved runway used for glider launches and the western-most grass strip. A tow plane and glider were staged on the middle runway in preparation for a launch. As I made the right turn from base to final; I lost sight of the intended landing zone and was unable to identify it clearly upon short final. As an alternative; I elected to land on the strip of grass between the paved and the more-narrow paved runway. However; just prior to touchdown; I realized that I was coming needlessly close to a small power plane which was taking off from the paved runway. Nevertheless; the power plane was able to complete its takeoff; and I was able to roll out while veering away from the active runway and avoiding the staged tow plane and glider. Several factors contributed to this event. I am a relative newcomer to this airport; with six landings prior to this flight; so my familiarity with the appearance of the landing zone from all angles could be better. The reduced visibility from the rear seat was also a contribution; as was the additional traffic. Events such as this can be avoided in the future by gaining additional experience with the layout of the airport; maintaining visual acquisition of the intended landing zone; and paying better attention to other aircraft and their movements.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	964099
Time
Date	201108
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	Landing
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Person 1
Function	Instructor Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 6 Flight Crew Total 980 Flight Crew Type 980
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Ground Conflict Critical
Miss Distance	Horizontal 100

A glider instructor reported loosing sight of the grass landing area next to a hard runway area and taking evasive action to resolve a conflict with an aircraft on its takeoff roll.