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Old 28th Mar 2016, 22:40
  #2125 (permalink)  
Lima Juliet
 
Join Date: May 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 4,333
Received 80 Likes on 32 Posts
I'm still hearing made up reasons for not using these other sites. The excuse about service flying/gliding clubs is lame - these are encroachments that have lower priority than a VGS, as a lodger unit paid for out of the Defence budget, to use a Government Aerodrome.

Also, the stuff about Honington - you don't need a transponder to fly into Honington and the flying club on the Stn don't have an issue with MLD or LAK - they either call RAPCON or they call them via landline beforehand. Pop ups are just as bad for the RAPCON controller if they are a light aircraft as they are a glider - there used to be a Pietenpol Aircamper flying out of there with no transponder without an issue. About 1/5th of the old Honington ATZ sits within the USAF's CMATZ and the rest is in completely clear Class G (ie. No MATZ).

Also I wonder how the BGA mamage to operate quite safely out of airfields that would be 'tight' for a VGS and then send them solo at age 14 vice nearly 3 years later for an Air Cadet.

Finally, gliders landing anywhere following a launch failure is practiced on a regular basis and also gliders are designed to land out on unprepared fields and then be trailered off to fly again - just how bumpy do you think the grass is around an airfield???

Point accepted on the Welsh gliding sites, never been to them. So if the Welsh (and Northern Irish) haven't got any suitable gliding sites for ab initio flying, then they're obviously not bothered, so let's keep them in England and Scotland then...[joke]. Seriously, there must be somewhere in Ulster and Wales where a youngster can glide safely without an egg whisk on the front?

LJ
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