On one occasion last year I was gliding out of Portmoak airfield on the shores of Loch Leven. For those of you unfamiliar with the airfield, its primarily a gliding airfield with two ridges along the shore of the Loch which gliders generally fly back and forth along in order to gain some height before heading off elsewhere to look for some thermals/wave.
On the said occasion, there were about 5 gliders 'ridge bashing', all of which were following the standard procedure (going the same way) when some guys with model gliders turned up and unknown to most of us, began flying them randomly amongst all of manned gliders.
I glanced around keeping a good lookout as one does when I saw a model glider heading straight for my cockpit that looked like it was certainly within 10-15meters. I took evading action but this could have put both me and the other manned gliders on the ridge in serious danger of a collision!
Was definately a brown trouser moment.
I dont mind model aircraft sharing the same airspace as manned gliders but it would be helpful if they followed the same procedures as the rest of us!
