Following a number of mid-air near misses above the region's skies, Stuart Minting visits one of the country's most popular gliding sites

CIRCLING beneath a cotton-like cloud, almost 3,000ft above the North York Moors, a buzzard rises up alongside our glider.

It's a thrilling sight, and not an uncommon one for pilots of unpowered aircraft who share the use of thermal lift with birds of prey, says Paul Whitehead, who used to fly RAF Vulcan bombers.

His fellow Yorkshire Gliding Club members agree momentarily mistaking a buzzard for a rapidly approaching military jet, as happened to a club instructor 2,200ft above Low Ellington, near Bedale, last August, is an easier error than some would believe.

"If you are thermalling you go round and see a speck, then next time you're round it's full size and there's nothing you can do about it," he says.

While some RAF fighters are painted black for visibility reasons, they move very quickly and can be hard to spot, Mr Whitehead says, particularly if the jets are coming at you from below.

Conversely, gliders must be almost totally white, to reflect the sun's heat, and can be hard to spot against clouds.

The glider pilot, who had been on a cross-country flight from the club’s base at Sutton Bank, near Thirsk, said the time between sighting the Tornados and their closest point to his aircraft was only one or two seconds.

A UK Airprox Board inquiry into the near-miss concluded "circumstances had conspired against" the Tornado pilots to leave them just below the cloud base, an area where they were likely to encounter gliders.

The safety watchdog concluded the “unfortunate incident went against the norm” in an area where there was an excellent relationship between air traffic controllers and pilots.

It also found both the glider and RAF Leeming pilots were not due criticism over the incident, but did call for improved communications between military and glider pilots in an airspace corridor stretching between Middleton in Teesdale and York.

After a smooth landing at the North's most popular gliding club's base beside the White Horse of Kilburn, members are keen to dispel any notion that its approach to safety is anything but professional.

Chris Thirkell, chairman of the club whose members have included pioneering aviator Amy Johnson, details a panoply of safety measures it uses for almost 5,000 flights annually, in what is among the busiest aviation areas in the country.

Alongside checks for appropriate qualifications and regular tests, pilots movements are monitored and anyone who has questionable competency or attitude towards risk, can have their ratings removed and be grounded. Tomfoolery would not be tolerated, he says.

Mr Thirkell says: "There are safe ways of having fun in gliders. The highest risk to a glider pilot is colliding with another glider pilot.

"The pilot in the Airprox incident was turning, so he was making himself conspicuous, he was doing everything he could."

Pilots on lengthy cross-country flights – which can extend to as far as 750km – he says, have little option but to turn off transponders (devices which emit location signals to radar operators). Preserving the aircraft's battery life for emergencies is vital.

As he demonstrates an advanced simulator that the club's enthusiasts are developing, Mr Thirkell adds: "You can't afford not to have your basic instruments working, for incidents such as an emergency landing. While in an ideal world every aircraft would be fitted with a transponder, the cost is prohibitive – it could double the cost of a glider."

However, the overwhelmingly majority of visitor pilots and 195 flying members, who can glide for several hours at a time from the escarpment, are equipped with another conspicuity aid, Flarm, which personnel at fast-jet training school RAF Linton, south of Thirsk, have bought into.

While club officials hold regular information sharing meetings with military leaders, Mr Thirkell says he remains a little frustrated over progressing the club's relationship with RAF Leeming, near Bedale, which has refused to use Flarm.

It's clear the club and its members devote a huge amount of time to making the sport as safe as it is exciting, but they are keen to point out that the most crucial accident avoidance method is free and available to all.

"Lookout is the most important thing", says Mr Thirkell, and proudly points towards the club's excellent safety record. He adds: "We share this airspace on a regular basis, midweek there's a fair bit of military and commercial traffic, and we co-exist happily."