No-one seems to have commented on the report that the gliders in the
near miss were possibly near cloudbase. We all know that in
sailplanes height is everything and just about every soaring pilot
regularly ignores the regulations requiring minimum clearances from
cloud.

Maybe flying in Britain and South Africa desensitized me to this issue
- flying in clouds seemed quite normal in both places and even I had
one gyro instrument back in those days. However, I don't see any real
difference here in the USA - pilots routinely climb under clouds until
visibility gets fuzzy. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised if
commercial aircraft get a shock to find gliders where they aren't
supposed to be, especially as they descend through cloud.

It's also my view that anyone flying a glider in an area of high
commercial traffic without a transponder is plain nuts. Mine was out
for repair for a few weeks and I got to count an awful lot of rivets
on airliners on approach to Tucson International - they pass right
over our gliderport. I even got to see passengers faces on one and I
don't think they were delighted to see me so close up!

I'll take all the electronic countermeasures I can get!

Mike