Gliders in IFR

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B

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I was just looking threw the CFR's preparing for my commercial check ride and stumbled along a part in IFR currency that talked about gliders flying IFR.

That has to be the most insane thing I have ever heard!! Some one tell me their is more to that regulation than I am reading, I can't believe that the FAA would let glider pilots fly in IMC for more than 10 sec, or shoot a must land approach!
 
Well I don't know about shooting instrument approaches, but I can see where a glider might be in a position to need to fly in IMC. For one thing when gliders go for altitude records they go well up into Positive Control Airspace which by definition means they operate IFR. But relax, if many glider pilots try to shoot actual approaches it will be one of those Darwinian, self-limiting things.
 
One thing about gliders, though, is that all approaches, whether in VMC or IMC, are "must land" approaches. No go-arounds allowed.

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Seems kinda odd to me. I mean what are the requirements for IFR gliders? Do they have a battery to run the radios or the transponder? And do they REALLY need a clock with a seconds hand?
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One thing about gliders, though, is that all approaches, whether in VMC or IMC, are "must land" approaches. No go-arounds allowed.

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Well, there is such thing as a motorglider (even one with a turbine), so a go-around there would be possible. Here in Anchorage there's a Steme SV-10 at Merril that looks like it would be a blast.
 
Many gliders have battery operated radios & transponders.

North west of SAT there is a glider field, which is only about 2 miles away from the Initial Fix for the approach to 12R.

Several of the glider pilots tell me that they listen to aproach, and if they are called as traffic to some airliner, the glider turns on their transponder.

I had also noticed that there seems to be a Instrument rating for gliders.
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I think it has to deal with gliders going into class A. Im not to sure on it though. Most of the gliders pilots I talk to only confess that they only go up to 17,999 with a
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meaning they just turn there xponder off is they have one and don't admit they went into class A
 
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I think it has to deal with gliders going into class A. Im not to sure on it though. Most of the gliders pilots I talk to only confess that they only go up to 17,999 with a
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meaning they just turn there xponder off is they have one and don't admit they went into class A

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I don't know about gliders but a transponder is required above 10,000 MSL
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