Thanks for the advice everyone, today I rang Sutton Bank and had a chat with an instructor there to voice my concerns, he said all was well as they have many people flying over, I was given their A/G frequency, and will ring beforehand to see which runway is in use and what area they are active in

Cheers, Jim

l suspect a little something is missing there.

" upper heyford, this is glider xxx, my intention is to pass to the north west on my way to xxx".

What is your altitude, Sir ?

"3000 ft decending"

Stop your decent, and turn right 45 deg.

"unable"

Look out to the right, and tell me your intentions.

Four F1-11`s, configured for landing.

A final glide to Bidford, and a tow home.

lf the law allows, use it. Once gone never ever recovered.

And judging by some of the comments it just go's to prove why power pilots who know nothing about gliding or nothing about weather should never go near an active glider site unless there life depends on it. Been involved in both gliding as well as power flying for over 20 years now and some things never cease to amaze.

As far as I know it, the law doesn't prevent you to go swimming with sharks wearing a sirloin steak swim suit...tempted?

Glider turning = Easy to see
Glider head-on = Almost invisible

OK to fly over as long as you know the risks and have a head on a 360 degree turntable! The sky is a big place but why make it smaller by going into known areas of intense activity?

OB

Having spent a couple of years driving a 4X4 with almost a kilometer of steel cable attached from the winch to the launch point I never fly my spam can anywhere near a glider site….

On my skills test I was asked to plan a route that, funnily enough, went straight over the top of an active parachute-dropping site. I told my examiner that I’d call them up and unless I got active confirmation that they were not dropping I’d do a diversion around. I think I heard the sound of a tick being made in my examiners head. Perhaps your instructor is giving a little hint?

FWIW, the military have an active policy of avoiding gliding sites, although all the FW assets can easily overfly by a huge margin.
I've been at the Long Mynd in Shropshire when a gaggle of Hawks came over at 300ft and pulled bl##dy hard when they realised they were over a gliding site, a quiet word sufficed as they are normally quite good at avoiding the site.
One other thing to consider about gliders is that if the thermal is still going at cloudbase, some gliders will enter cloud until the thermal peters out and then pop out of the cloud.

If the military see fit to avoid gliding sites, it's just not worth introducing the extra element of risk. BTW Long Mynd gliders generally have radio which is used to good effect with traffic out of Welshpool which is relatively close.

There are "active gliding sites" then there are "gliding sites on the chart". Some of them you don't see a glider on the field even when you fly over. Some you see lots in the air.

I wouldn't NOT fly over one, I'd just be extremely cautious and make sure I am above any cables, and it also depends on the weather. If it is not good gliding weather then you might not see a single glider. If it is perfect weather, you might see lots.

Just keep a good lookout.

Got an evidence for that? I like to look out AND use gadgets.

Define good gliding weather?
Even if there is no wind, wave or thermal activity, winching still gets you up to 1400-1800ft which gives enough scope for training, all said and done even though you CAN fly above the site why not simply navigate round it as it reduces the percentages.

Apart from that, imagine the AAIB report, Pilot X chose to route over a known gliding site where the mid-air occurred. It's like drinking a pint then driving, not illegal but when the report says the driver had been drinking but was under the limit, you're damned.

Momoe,
well, if one is on nodding terms with the winch driver, well over 3000ft is easily possible on the right day.
Any point in discussing the rights, and whatever, with people of less than 100 launches ?

Pointless.

For those of an aviation bent, use it or lose it.

( for the power guys, the cable will be directly downwind )