"Ron Lee" wrote in message
...
Can anyone identify an airport where gliders and powered aircraft use
the same runway? Do they use opposite traffic patterns? Any other
operational issues?

The Mid-Atlantic Soaring Association operation at Frederick
Maryland was forced by the airport manager into sharing a paved
runway with power traffic. There are two runways and in most
wind conditions power and glider traffic use different runways,
but sometimes we both use the same.

We use different patterns for power and gliders and those cases,
and we are required to announce our intentions on Unicom.

On some days, power traffic is almost continuous at certain times
of the day. Touch and goes are occurring. Power planes may be
lined up for takeoff, while more than one power plane is in the
pattern.

Personally, I find this situation to be undesirable. The number
of glider takeoffs per hour is greatly reduced. We need to stage
carefully off the runway, then rush to get on and launched
quickly. We sometimes have to cut in to the lined up power
traffic if we want to get off at all.

Landings are more harrowing. Sometimes I have circled the field
at 1,000 or 1,200 feet listening to announcements by power planes
that typically announce their landings from several miles out.
Waiting for no announcements is out of the question. When I get
low I just have to find a slot and take it, whether power is
close or not. I have to be prepared to land on the grass, and
some of our club members have done that, though I have not yet
had to do it.

I also feel more pressure to steer off the runway while I still
have enough inertia, rather than coming to a dead stop. I have
managed to clip a runway light, and many others have too.

All in all, I find intermixing with power traffic, especially if
there is a lot of it, to be cumbersome, unnerving, and not really
as safe. But then I'm a low time Sunday pilot. The really
competent pilots seem to take it all in stride.

If you have specific questions, you might want to write to talk
to our chief flight instructor, Glenn Collins. If you wish to email
me, I can forward your inquiry to him.

Alan