Contest And Airspace Violations

[Bob Youngblood]

Once again Class B airspace and Class D have been violated in Florida during the recent and ongoing contest . Is this something new, why heck no, it is just a continuation of a yearly event. Airspace  violations are serious and create problems for the aviation community and how these incursions are handled by the SSA contest committee is lacking in good judgement. Ok, so a pilot violates class B and the  penalty is a a loss of points  and he or she is back in the saddle again the next day. This has occurred many times in Florida, there is no excuse. Today we have  instruments that not only show you where airspaces are located and they also have voice over telling you about the proximity of airspace in comparison to your location. Making the excuse of, " It Was Just A Small Incursion', is a poor justification of the violation. Kind of like saying, my daughter is just a little pregnant, no such thing! The violators should be removed from the contest for the remainder of the event. Our club has worked very close with the FAA in regard to local airspace, we have been one off the most proactive clubs in the country that has a letter of agreement that notifies Class D and WPB  approach informing them of our glider activity. The agreement works well for all and increases safety for all. Violation of airspace is a serious violation, nothing to be frowned upon. The SSA should handle violations more serious, your opinions are certainly welcome. 

[Brian Nightingale]

Any flight computer , including the free ones like xcsoar and Lk8000 are screaming at you and tell you how far above , below or horizontally from airspace . I agree , that there’s really no excuse . More than likely, it’s broken because of ultra competitive behavior, pushing it to the edge and over it . Not a good way to aviator

On Fri, Mar 27, 2026 at 9:51 AM Bob Youngblood <youngbl...@gmail.com> wrote:

Once again Class B airspace and Class D have been violated in Florida during the recent and ongoing contest . Is this something new, why heck no, it is just a continuation of a yearly event. Airspace  violations are serious and create problems for the aviation community and how these incursions are handled by the SSA contest committee is lacking in good judgement. Ok, so a pilot violates class B and the  penalty is a a loss of points  and he or she is back in the saddle again the next day. This has occurred many times in Florida, there is no excuse. Today we have  instruments that not only show you where airspaces are located and they also have voice over telling you about the proximity of airspace in comparison to your location. Making the excuse of, " It Was Just A Small Incursion', is a poor justification of the violation. Kind of like saying, my daughter is just a little pregnant, no such thing! The violators should be removed from the contest for the remainder of the event. Our club has worked very close with the FAA in regard to local airspace, we have been one off the most proactive clubs in the country that has a letter of agreement that notifies Class D and WPB  approach informing them of our glider activity. The agreement works well for all and increases safety for all. Violation of airspace is a serious violation, nothing to be frowned upon. The SSA should handle violations more serious, your opinions are certainly welcome. 

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[Henry Retting]

Bobby, your bloviating is one sided reminding me of the tactics used by the most liberal like your girlfriends Pelosi and Omar with a lot of Maxine Waters layered in. You failed to include all the action administered by the Contest Staff or the FAA. Stay with what you know like Club Operations, Membership growth, Youth participation,  and mangoes. 

All SSA sanctioned Competitions follow established U.S. Part 121 FAR Carrier Operations Protocols and Procedures when a FAR violation has occurred. There is no higher Standard. 

I would not expect you to know this because you do not Race. 

Henry Retting 

R

Life 1973

[Bob Youngblood]

Henry, you lack of knowledge is certainly showing, I can expect that from an untracrepidarian like yourself. The SSA has nothing to do with FAR's or airspace, please correct me if that statement is incorrect. Being a freightdog like you were it shouldn't take a purist like me to explain this to you. Now the SSA penalty for such violations is the loss of daily points plus 100, is that correct? The FAA could care less about the loss of points in a glider contest, the ADSB and the LX doesn't say that you just got sanctioned in a glider contest, Pelosi is even smart enough to know that. The response that I was made aware of was that the infraction was a mile or less and was no big deal. Was that not a big deal to the contest guy or the FAA? Now remember , the airspace in Washington that resulted in a collision between a helicopter and a passenger plane, the helicopter was only off altitude by about 100 feet or so. Does the SSA participants in a contest receive special treatment involving contest airspace violations than the general aviation community ? I anxiously await your response! Next time The Trumpster is in WPB, get in your motorglider and fly through that TFR and have a spokesperson for the glider contest to call and ease the pain. If you would be so kind to provide me with the subpart of 121 that includes glider contest airspace violations, being a RACER you should know this by memory. Our club is doing great, another one of our youth members has just been accepted into the AFA, and the mangoes are recovering from that deadly freeze. 

[Henry Retting]

Over your head Bobby….

R

[Brian Nightingale]

I was going to comment , but I’ll just stay out of it

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 1, 2026, at 9:11 PM, 'Henry Retting' via Soaring Aviators Repository <sa...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Over your head Bobby….

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[Bob Youngblood]

Well, I can see that you seem to be absent from the classroom. Further information adds much to this discussion, let me make a few points that you may or may not recall. The pilots were experienced with the racing format or else I guess they would not be in a national contest. Each day the task sheet informs pilots of the proximity  of class airspace in reference to the turnpoints near that controlled airspace, I will be glad to send you a copy of the task sheet for that day. The cambridge instruments not even show the airspace on the display but also issue a voice overlay informing the pilot of the approaching airspace. The problem of airspace infringement does not do any of us any favors, it creates a problem that lives long after the culprit leaves and goes home. Kind of reminds me of the guy at the dog park that watches his dog take a dump and never picks up the deposit.