Sorry Jack but your dead wrong. There are flesh and bone reasons why we
should teach people why we don't penetrate clouds, in US
gliders/airspace. Actually, the legal reasons are what the thread here
is searching for.

Consider this Jack. You just got called in by the FAA for IFR glider
flying here in the USA. Let's be optimistic and say nobody ran into you
and you didn't kill anybody. But now our sport is on the carpet because
you broke the law, and your flying days are done due to FAA certificate
action.
Nice, now what questions would you be re asking yourself, and what
lame exscuses would you try to present to the inspectors, and the
unlimited expert witnesses sitting in the room.. There aren't any. Buy
a nice ASA FAR/AIM book and catch up on your reading.

With regard to wave flying, yes we get a window, and stay out of the
clouds and ahead of the weather. I've flown the wave window at Marfa,
where we had a window, a chunk of airspace, but still not a clearance
into IFR conditions. The topic here is getting a clearance and going
into solid IFR. Jack I'm open for enlightenment on how to legally do
it.

Your statement " it can be done safely under limited circumstances"
won't hold up when your dancin' for the FAA.

Thanks for your input,

Snoop


58y wrote:
snoop wrote:

Shawn, I thought of another IFR glider question. So you tow up, the
ceiling is around 2500agl, there's lift, you get your clearance, climb
into the clouds, fly around on whatever kind of clearance it is you
get, and the ceiling drops down to say, still VFR, but it drops to
1000'AGL. How does an IFR glider make an approach, or even get down to
minimum vectoring altitude? I'm curious what the the local controllers,
who are protecting their airspace, what pages in the TERPS Manual do
they flip to? Curious.


What do they do when flying in wave out west with the threat of the
fain(sp?) gap closing? You stay ahead of the weather. Same thing you do
in any aircraft, on every flight. There's always the chance the
destination can go below your minimums, in a 1-26 or in a 757. Don't
make it look harder than it is.

Anybody that has a personal problem with flying in clouds shouldn't do
it. It can be done safely, under limited circumstances, and our effort
ought to be to show people how to do it safely and legally, not to scare
them away.


Jack