TRACON controller reports of a hang glider operation that was affecting his traffic. Controller repo...

Narrative:

There is a hang glider competition event occurring at or below 10000. ZZZ fct advises that upwards of 100 gliders are involved and may be airborne at any given time. They are in a huge area that comes within 4nm of the ZZZ airport; encompasses an airway at an altitude that we use for northbound traffic all the time; overlaps the final for runway xx at ZZZ for the RNAV D; VOR/DME C; and visual approaches while runway xx is the active runway. The NOTAM didn't even show up under the airport NOTAM's. It was only seen if ZZZ VOR (the NAVAID serving the airport) was checked. I called center's am and they called FSS and had the NOTAM issued as a 'pointer NOTAM' under the airport as well at my request. My question is; who approved this? Are gliders allowed on a federal airway? On the final approach course for the active runway in class D airspace? Are they allowed in class east airspace? They are not communicating with ATC; not visible on the radar; and due to the way the NOTAM was issued; none of the pilots I asked if they were aware of the activity had any idea it was going on.give them a much smaller area to operate in. Lower the altitude to take them off the federal airway at the MEA.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controller reports of a hang glider operation that was affecting his traffic. Controller reported the operations to Center who then issued a pointer NOTAM to advise aircraft of the hang gliders in the area.

Narrative: There is a hang glider competition event occurring at or below 10000. ZZZ FCT advises that upwards of 100 gliders are involved and may be airborne at any given time. They are in a huge area that comes within 4nm of the ZZZ airport; encompasses an airway at an altitude that we use for northbound traffic all the time; overlaps the final for Runway XX at ZZZ for the RNAV D; VOR/DME C; and visual approaches while Runway XX is the active runway. The NOTAM didn't even show up under the airport NOTAM's. It was only seen if ZZZ VOR (the NAVAID serving the airport) was checked. I called Center's AM and they called FSS and had the NOTAM issued as a 'pointer NOTAM' under the airport as well at my request. My question is; who approved this? Are gliders allowed on a federal airway? On the final approach course for the active runway in Class D airspace? Are they allowed in Class E airspace? They are not communicating with ATC; not visible on the radar; and due to the way the NOTAM was issued; none of the pilots I asked if they were aware of the activity had any idea it was going on.Give them a much smaller area to operate in. Lower the altitude to take them off the federal airway at the MEA.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1269824
Time
Date	201506
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Other
Operating Under FAR Part	Other 103
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Approach Departure
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 1.5
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Airspace Violation All Types Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

TRACON controller reports of a hang glider operation that was affecting his traffic. Controller reported the operations to center who then issued a pointer NOTAM to advise aircraft of the hang gliders in the area.