All,
I had a similar situation in an Arrow a number of years ago. What I though was the perfect farmers field like several others around turned out to be an area where pine trees had been clear cut with stumps and burned (burnt?) remains covering the ground. By the time I was close enough to truly evaluate the field it was too late. The aircraft was totaled, but I was fine.
See my web page for more info and pictures:
Terry Pitts - N47944 made its last flight
I called my wife to come get me, "I haven't been arrested, but I'm at the sheriff's office, please come get me..."
forty-five minutes earlier I had eaten ice cream with my dad and kids before heading out on a planned two-hour cross-country for an Army Reserve weekend. My wife called my retired-fighter-pilot dad to say she would be late picking up the kids because she had to go get me. My dad obviously knew something had gone wrong.
Any guesses to what went wrong before I share the unfortunately too often repeated mistake? This mistake leads to fatalities in about 50 percent of the cases. In my case, I had planned a night flight, but the airplane came available earlier so I left earlier. Imagine...
Terry