Aircraft playing silly sods
Am I getting cranky in my old age, or was this a bit of silly thing to do?:
Flying to Clacton today (delightfully short strip... not sure about having a public footpath across the runway!), became aware of 'traffic' off to one side. Seemed to be manoeuvring , so I guessed it was prob an instructed lesson or a some sightseeing so I made my presence clear with a quick, shallow s-turn to show my full profile and carried on on the same track I'd been on for the last 20 minutes.
Strangely, the a/c then continued to carry out shallow turns, some away and some towards me. Enough for me to keep a pretty beady eye on said punter, anyway.
Then, my friend decided to turn in behind me and follow me, while still turning all the time. They were faster than me (what isn't faster than a club-owned 152?) and were gaining ground, forcing me to keep an eye by looking over my shoulder through the rear windows!
Now, I can't believe that said punter hadn't seen me and, while I never felt that we got dangerously close (couldn't see registration, for example), their fairly random manoeuvring made me feel a little uncomfortable, particularly as they were able to gain on me when I wasn't convinced I hd been spotted... After about 5 mins, they turned away and continued same sort of activity well over to my side, where I could more easily check on separation.
I'm not much of a catch, so I can't believe 'kiss chase' was the order of the day...
Like I say, was I being a stick-in-the-mud or was this a strange way to behave!
Anyway, lovely day for flying, all in all!
Hersh