Well, I needed it on last Saturday morning. I took of from Microland at about 05h45, routing for my family's farm about 8 nm north of Standerton. I spoke to Met earlier who informed me that there was some fog north of Standerton, but that it should start burning away soon. Just about halfway there, I noticed the thick fog bank up ahead, and my mindset started to plan towards landing, rather than facing death. ( I have been in low cloud before and I have the fear of death in me regarding that white darkness) Three quarters through my flight, about 18 nm from my destination, I reached Leeupan near Secunda, and made the decision that I would not continue from here, as the fog was now about 3nm ahead, and knowing the area well, I knew of all the high voltage powerlines coming up.
So, having made the decision, I started to plan and execute my precautionary landing. I learned the following - and would like to share it - maybe there is someone who can learn something:
1. I stayed calm, having made the decision. Fuel where fine - I had a full tank on take-off, and usually only use half a tank for this flight - so plenty of reserves.
2. I spend a lot of time looking for my landing spot around Leeupan. While there are a couple of nice stretches of open field, I had to keep in mind that it rained heavily the previous day, and those fields where probably very wet.
3. At long last I identified a "wenakker" between two pieces of tilled land which was raised a bit and contained a tweespoor paadjie. I don't think the little tweespoorpaddjie is ideal, but at least I knew it would be relatively dry.
4. All this searching were done from about 400 ft AGL.
5. I did the fly-bys according to the drill, making sure about lenght, obstacles and surface, and on my last one, from very low level noted that the grass on the little knob in the middle and around the paadjie was a bit long.
6. However, as I knew that the other options would be very wet, I decided that this would be my best shot.
7. On downwind, I did my pan call on VFR - luckily I knew that there was a crop sprayer operating at my Dad's place - 18nm away, and I would phone my Dad as soon as I was safe on the deck.
8. With the longish grass in mind, I turned finals, made my descent and rounded out. I stretched as far I could while staring to flare, bleeding as much airspeed as possible, and touched down - keeping my froont wheel in the air for as long as possible - still mindful of the grass.
9. When the front wheel touched, my speed was already very low and I managed to bring her to a stop very quickly.
Quite a feeling of achievement!
This experience taught me to trust your training and your flying instincts. I would rather face a tweespoor paadjie on a landing (for which I trained), than bugger into fog (for which I ALSO trained in the sense of DON'T DO IT!)
I waited for about 40 minutes, phoned my brother in law who gave me the all clear for conditions at my destination runway, and took of again - with bar all the way forward and full power from brakes on. The roll was a bit bumpy but soon I was airborne and happily on my way again.
Attached a photo of Geel Kerneels "in die veld"!
Fly safe!
