Biscuit74 - well said. You have hit the nail on the head. Hopefully the BGA will take ownership of this problem and review its procedures with regards instruction.
I know from past experience that the CAA can be very harsh if it wants to be, sometimes even petty with regards its enforcement policies. I hope this time they do make a stand and look at the whole problem globally rather than as something in Black and white, yes the infringements happened, yes they could prosecute. It would be more useful to examine WHY it happened, over 50% of the pilots on the day appeared to be unable to read a Notam, yes they are sometimes a pain to read, yes it might not be an ultra modern system which is employed to publish them. None the less, the system works (it could be made better) The information is freely availible. It is not excusable for the pilots to have been unaware of the RAT - or to rely on the competition organisers to brief them, it takes seconds to check and is only good airmanship.
I started my flying with gliding and worked through to Silver C, My training at the time was scant with regards map reading and airlaw. I had no idea how scant until I converted my silver c to a ppl. That was again reinforced with my written atpl exams. Thirty years later I would have thought those gaps might have been addressed. Its clear from Sundays events and the subsequent postings on here, that the issues may have been addressed at some club sites, but not on a national uniform policy basis. The training system seems to be too varied, the scope of what is taught does not seem standardised. It may produce glider pilots who can fly, but seems to not be so good at producing pilots with knowledge and skills to intergrate safely into busy and complex UK airspace.
There is the question about the wisdom of the person who set the task so close to the RA(T), I guess that NONE of the competitors thought (or dared) to raise the question at the briefing as to why the route had to take them so close. At least 50% of the competitors did not even know it was a RA(T).
The whole of this episode has highlighted some serious questions about the training of glider pilots in the UK, lets hope that lessons are learnt and things move rapidly forward for the better
Last edited by goldeneaglepilot; 25th Aug 2010 at 17:39.