"Gliders in the U.K. were involved in 10 near-midairs
in the second half of last year, safety investigators
said recently, noting that newer models fly at high
altitudes without transponders and are hard to see,
both visually and on radar...."

http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#188600


e.g., http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/3763766.stm







Can we believe any of this? A classic case of chinese whispers. Avweb quoting
the BBC quoting unamed MOD officials who are reporting on airmiss reports filed
by power pilots. We all know the perception of an airmiss by some power pilots
is completely different to what glider pilots understand.
I was speaking to one last summer who had just come down from a trial lesson
thermalling with about 12 other gliders.(not unusual at our site) and he was
nearly having kittens.

I am not saying that near misses do not happen between power and gliders but in
my experience gliders are far more aware of what is going on outside the
cockpit. The case of the fast jet pilot nearly hitting two gliders over the
gliding site at Talgarth at 500ft is a case in point. If he could not see the
gliders in plent of time he was going too fast, too low and in the wrong area.
Are powered aircraft not supposed to give way to gliders, balloons etc?