a PA28 shot past at my height not very far away
I flew to Nottingham for the first time the other day, and didn't find the airfield totally easy to locate visually (good thing they have an NDB). Probably I should have flown higher, in East Midlands' airspace, to get a better view (not flown in Class D before, so avoided it).
Anyway, I kept well to the east, precisely so as to avoid blundering into the circuit flying in the wrong direction, and got a call "where on earth are you then?" having announced my intention to join several minutes earlier.