Flying at 250 Kts in E,F and G airspace.
A bit of saftey discussion during that hot Summer.
Because of the exceptional weather conditions during the last weeks, numerous gliders (including myself ) found themselves at altitudes above 3000 m ( FL100 +) for very long periods (6 to 8 h per day ) . While always operating in VFR country (G,F or E ) the number of Irish low costs 737s and Military types I have crossed is too numerous to say. nothing dangerous mind you, , but we always missed by pure luck.
We are all supposed to separate ourselves with the "seen and be seen "concept but how does this work when one is doing 250 Kts and the other 50 ?
Our Irish low cost friend is going down into second zone uncontrolled airfields where Para, gliding and GA activity is , especially on Summer days, intense.
The most stupid situation I saw was in Poitiers (F) where the European Twin Glider championship was held during 15 days 3 weeks ago and an Irish 737 came down in the middle of the pack every evening at the same time as the circuits returns...
95% of the gliders do not carry SSR and Poitiers has no radar and is a class E CTR. ( not even radio contact is mandatory )
But friends also reported incidents in other places where paras were seen falling around the same 737s on several occasions.
I do not want to start a sensational debate, but merely to raise a point that possibly should aim at making us aware of the danger, looking more outside and possibly fly at a (much) lower speed below 10.000 ft for instance, when in those areas.
I would perticularly appreciate the views of our Irish friends .