Husband's Bosworth is not restricted airspace.. .. .Therefore it is behoven of every pilot to see and avoid, bearing in mind that gliders have right of way over powered aircraft and I wholeheartedly agree that it is not good airmanship to fly near a glider site at an altitude that may result in a proximity problem, especially if the aircraft is still fastened to the ground. Perhaps the Husband's Bosworth gliding people should be campaigning for an ATZ if their problem is so severe?. .. .In my experience, conflicts sometimes occur in the open FIR when glider pilots expect too much from others, and it has to be said that some do hide behind the hope that power will always be in a position to give way to sail. (I'm not biased, I started out as a young glider pilot 30 years ago).. .. .Some glider pilots expect to be given an extremely wide berth (at all times when it suits them of course) but don't take into consideration the fact that their aircraft may not have been seen due to its small size and white "cloud camouflage". (Of course it is a conflict of human rights to expect a strobe or a transponder, even though these can be solar powered).. .. .It helps the pilot of a powered aircraft in transit past the duty thermal if the glider pilot can tip a wing to indicate that he has seen the other aircraft; it also helps us to see him due to the increased planform view but not many glider pilots do this as they think only of thermalling (or have I spotted many who never saw me at all?).. .. .Most of us (hopefully) do read daily NOTAMS as part of our profession (and religion) but even when the half of southern UK seems to be "reserved" for competitions, many of us still have our job to do in the same altitude bands. Unfortunately it is extremely difficult to spot thermalling gliders, and sometimes it seems like every CU cloud has it's own flock. Some glider pilots are no respecters of restricted airspace themselves..... .. .One of my most frightening aviation incidents ever was caused by a glider pilot who came close to getting a Darwin award at my expense at an RAF aerodrome in the early 1990s. In typical late afternoon summer haze, I was cleared by ATC to line up and wait behind a landing Chipmunk, which I did. The Chipmunk vacated about thirty seconds later and ATC then cleared me for takeoff, and I started to roll at full power. As my aircraft reached about 50 kts, a glider flew over me from behind, about twenty feet up, and landed directly ahead of me in the middle of the runway. There was no way I could stop in time, I had to go past and elected to continue as we were on the short runway (but they're all short when you're going 45 degrees off heading)! I had to swerve very hard and go very close to the edge of the runway to avoid him.. .. .Our SATCO apparently went apoplectic when the glider pilot stomped across to the tower and complained that I should have given way to him! It turned out he was in a competition and so he had a radio and knew the correct frequency but he didn't bother to make any R/T calls even though he had been operating for some time inside the ATZ. He came very close to causing a collision by landing on the runway in use ahead of a rolling aircraft, even though he could have landed anywhere on the airfield grass a quarter of a mile either side of me! It was a good thing he was no longer in the tower on my return or there would probably have been a fistfight. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Mad]" src="mad.gif" /> . .. .No, I know most glider pilots aren't normally that stupid! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />. . . . <small>[ 04 March 2002, 22:06: Message edited by: ShyTorque ]</small>