Good Morning, Gentlemen.
WRT Gliding Sites; I fly (read 'Soar when conditions are right') out of Lasham. Which has some relatively crowded air near and overhead.
We DO try to be wary of these powered beasties zooming around, as we are only too aware just how invisible a glider is to us, never mind you people who are transporting others. This gets proven to us on an almost yearly basis by the number of glider vs glider serious/fatal accidents which occur in our community.
We don't have any sort of exclusion zone - the 1/2 mil chart shows our sites and will normally, as someone else stated, give you a clearance height, dependant on the winch cable length. We do like a bit of space though, as you might see from the following.
To say that we will never be near the winch could be a dangerous thing for both of us; we actually release from the wire (3/8 inch braided steel, with a few lbs weight of shackles, wire strop, retarder chute and connecting links on the end) well short of the winch, due to the weight of the cable. However, on a good day, you can almost GUARANTEE that the first lift we find will be right over the winch.
We have a system of aero towing which will see, when a competiton is starting, anywhere up to five tugs flying off on a series of routes away from the airfield up to 2000 feet. There the gliders release and the tugs return to pick up the next gliders. The gliders meanwhile search out the nearest thermals and tend to gather there. This activity can last for over an hour, with a hundred plus gliders being launched.
This is in addition to the normal winch and aerotow launches going on fror training and leisure purposes from the launch point.
We do a lot of trial flights (to interest newcomers and put some money in the coffers), pre-solo and post-solo training. Lots of ups and downs, in other words, within a two to five mile radius depending on winds, thermals and visibility.
Later on in the day, things get interesting again as the somewhat reduced group of competition gliders start returning. Some will be struggling along desparately trying to make the finish at zero feet, whilst others will have had adequate height to stuff the nose down and cruise at Vne to get home. Ergo speeds between 40 - 130 kts and heights between 400-4000ft.
Please note, this is Lasham; most other fields are a lot smaller and less crowded. But to us the risks are similar, only varied by the height of the airspace above us and the number of gliders/powered a/c in the vicinity.
The British Gliding Association (BGA) do not look kindly upon gliding people who infringe airspace or notammed areas. We have an uphill fight all the way to retain what freedom we have in this crowded airspace and the few misfit miscreants who disregard these safety measures are regarded as a pain in the nether regions by the rest of us. (Unfortunately, we also have one or two pilots who get lost using GPS!!)
I'm certain some readers are also gliding/soaring pilots and may have a varying take on this situation, but this is my viewpoint.
Regards
RonBVR
