Dear IMFU
Theres only one thing for it, you must pay us a visit! Volcanos permitting, of course.
We enjoy being hospitable to Yanks at Shenington Gliding Club, near Banbury. Especially if you can be here for the 4th of July, I am the only resident of US origin in the club, and we need to show the locals how to play baseball properly.
(One nice thing about posting on these humble forums is they never tell us off for thread creep!)
So I shall creep some more. Started gliding in l983, at Booker. Where traffic is separated as mentioned by cats five, except for helicopters who cannot be trusted because they can stop in midair and go backwards, so you cannot trust them not to cross your approach!
Accumulated a lot of time since then, 1,800 in gliders, 1,400 in power, because I never never stopped flying, and instructing and participating in competitions, and flying in the Alps, and rock polishing in Wales and climbing in wave in Aboyne, etc etc etc. It is a wonderful scene in the UK for gliding altogether, the fields are friendly and the farmers speak English, sort of.
The bad news is I am getting older, (good news, considering the alternative of course) and in the course of having a knee replaced, thanks to the NHS, developed a problem with vision which has finished my instructing career, except on these forums. If I can convince my doctor that I am fit to drive a car next week, I will be back in a single seater, you bet, and they may permit me to supervise junior instructors from the ground. Watch this space!