This site is intended to be used as a reference source of information for anyone flying any type of glider who may at some time need to identify and select a field for landing out. But the emphasis will be on commenting in relation to decision making by sailplane pilots.
There will be no attempt made at giving instruction on actually flying a circuit and landing into a field, merely assistance in recognizing suitable surfaces and more importantly avoiding poor surfaces.

I will try to provide up to date images of the main arable crops and grassland fields as seen from the air and on the ground.
Weather permitting this will be done roughly fortnightly, starting in late March running until mid August when most of the harvest is in.

This information should be used in conjunction with training and advice from qualified instructors and in no way is it intended to replace or contradict their recommendations.

The format will be 2 images of each crop that is being monitored.
Each field will be viewed from about 1000-1500ft, and from the ground with a scaling marker visible. This is a board 1metre tall divided into 10s of centimetres i.e. the digit 1 is above and to the right of the 10cm line.
Other images will be posted to cover anything of exceptional interest such as no go fields.
 

In addition there will be  a short commentary on the state of crops which may be approaching or arriving at critical states for sailplane pilots and any important news items.

Caution
Please bear in  mind that all the images for this site will be taken in the East Midlands so allowances will have to be made if your area is a significant distance to the North or South. (Typically crops run 7-10 days earlier on the South Coast of England and approx. 7-14 days later in the Scottish Borders).

This site is only as good as the information available at the time so any images will be gratefully received and incorporated where possible.

If you find a field and are unsure as to what the crop is then please feel free to send an image to Adrian together with any description and I will do my best to come up with an answer.
 
 

The Small Print
The Webmaster accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of any information obtained from links to this website.
No liability can be accepted for decisions made by individuals on the basis of information obtained from this site.