I don’t think they can go into CAS without a clearance. There was some concession years ago whereby they could fly VFR in IMC… not sure what happened to that.
Most gliders don’t have a transponder 
It’s a comprehensive solution adopted by lots of people 
Some have a Mode C, when doing cross country flights. I have picked up some very close ones on TCAS near Shoreham; they fly along the South Downs. In one case he was climbing, right under me, as fast as I could trying to avoid him (+1000fpm) but as I say he was Mode C so at least was visible which was pretty decent of him.
FWIW, yesterday I got fairly close to a Mode A contact; he (C15x) was flying a “B52 circuit” so popped up in an unexpected place; it is the same one which has been Mode A for years, due to a faulty altitude encoder. Another “good solution”.
Fenland_Flyer wrote:
I thought they had airways crossing “priviledges”
AFAIK that has stopped long long ago, now you need to be in club that has a LoA that specifies exactly how you would cross specific bits of class A (e.g. Scottish P600/B864 routes)
Peter wrote:
Most gliders don’t have a transponder It’s a comprehensive solution adopted by lots of people
It can be done in different ways. One way is to use a transponder. The other way is to activate predescribed airspace, very much like military airspace. Yet another reason to stay in touch on the radio.
Peter wrote:
There was some concession years ago whereby they could fly VFR in IMC… not sure what happened to that.
That’s not a concession and it still happen. Our license (or certificate as we’re not in Part-FCL yet) don’t restrict to VFR. So in class G, as many power pilots also do, I declare myself IFR when I cannot maintain VMC.
Most gliders don’t have a transponder It’s a comprehensive solution adopted by lots of people
Probably true, but turning a transponder off seems irresponsible to many of us, so I hope that lots of people won’t do it.
On the other hand, the alleged zero-tolerance punishment policy described above is bound to create a demand for legal expenses insurance which some enterprising broker will be happy to arrange. Ultimately, that’s an arms race which UK CAA IET can’t win.
Where would legal expenses insurance covering legal expenses in criminal proceedings and non-trivial civil cases be available in the UK? It is usually sold alongside home insurance and motor insurance and only covers very little.
You guys must be thinking of the marginal cases, where people are getting busted within the legal altimeter tolerance.
The only way to get a CAA action into a court is to stick a middle finger up to their “sentence” (Gasco or whatever) and then they will have no option but to prosecute you, and then you can engage a defence lawyer and have the case heard properly, but you will still lose (in most cases) because you did infringe.
One thing you would have to do is also ignore all comms from NATS and the CAA because they get you to write reports which incriminate yourself.
I’ve been told that where you did something really so serious that they want to prosecute, they don’t ask you to write the reports, for the above reason. That is quite interesting (if true) because it would mean someone in NATS has to make that decision very quickly; probably on the same day.
Yes; very hard to get insurance against a prosecution for something you did yourself.
The National Gamekeepers Association, Countryside Alliance, National Farmers Union, British Association for Shooting and Conservation (to name a few) and, I think, AOPA US all have insurance schemes to protect their members from unwarranted or unjust executive action.
There are conditions of course, including a triage process in which a specialist lawyer decides whether and how best to defend or bring an action.
Hopeless cases are not defended, but at least the miscreant has a lawyer to negotiate on his behalf.
In the UK our associations are relatively weak and beholden to the regulator, so the obvious provider would be an aircraft insurance broker. We all have to buy insurance so that would, potentially, achieve the widest possible spread of risk.
Some people just never give up; maybe, just to add to your conspiracy theory, all the world’s data is massaged, from the general election results to the population of Outer Mongolia. You must live in a sad world where you trust nobody; just for a few months let’s, as a GA community, sit back and see how the numbers add up.
I’ve been thinking this could really harm the GA community if the Daily Mail was to show an interest and sought the data from all the ATC providers and CAA and then sensationalise the story (as they do). Can’t we just get on with enjoying our flying and aim to stay away from where we can’t go? I
’m glad in my retirement years I have enough to occupy my time apart from the occasional glimpse at this forum.
