I had a lengthy discussion about this subject yesterday with the Captain of a large executive jet who encountered at least 5 gliders at 2000' on a five mile final to my instrument runway last Friday. As a former glider pilot, familiar with the local area, he had briefed to expect possible gliding activity during his descent.
Whilst we (ATC) had a copy of the AUS paperwork advising us of a competition with up to 55 gliders taking part from an airfield about 20 miles away, no specific details of the routings or times had been passed to us. Subsequently, we were not aware of any activity when the jet made his approach. The area concerned is an ideal gliding site (rapidly rising escarpment), outside controlled airspace and the weather on Friday was almost perfect for gliding.
Nevertheless, we came to the following conclusions.
Planning a cross country or competition route through the final approach track of an instrument approach procedure at a busy airport (80 000+ movements per year) is questionable to say the least.
Not advising that airport in advance (ie immediately prior to launch) compounds the problem
Finding yourself in that position as a radio equipped glider pilot, it is poor airmanship to not to establish communications with the ATC unit concerned.
From the ATC point of view, we're not going to ask you to climb, descend or get out of the way....we can't, it's Class G airspace and you're flying VFR!...but a simple call telling us how many of you there are, the direction you're tracking and level bands you're likely to be in goes a long way in enabling us to offer this information to other aircraft in the area, thereby improving flight safety for EVERYONE.
Had the jet known about the volume of activity, he may have elected to make an approach to another runway and visually manoeuvre for landing. His lookout would certainly have been sharper and he may have even used a slower approach speed.
The attitude adopted by SOME members of the gliding fraternity such as "It's the FIR, I'll do what I like" and "I'm too busy to call on the radio" does little to enhance flight safety or the reputation of General Aviation publicly.
It's the sky, it's free, it belongs to us all, let's share the responsibility of keeping it safe!