Evening all,
Today I took three friends from uni flying with me (after just recently been checked out on a C182), all in all the flight was pretty uneventful, with one exception. Without trying to slag anyone off, heres there story....
Departed east midlands to the north, headed off towards TNT, then a quick hop over to Alton Towers for some photos. Decided to head around east mids zone to re-enter from the south (so as to fly over Loughborough and get some pics of the uni). While heading south, down the west side of zone, approximately 0.5nm west of the Blithfield lake/reservoir, at about 2100ft I was surprised to see "something" infront of me. This is how i first percieved it, as "something" but within a second or two i realised it was an aircraft (Taildragger, not certain of type) going vertically, no more than 300m ahead and slightly to the left of me. I instinctively rolled right, by which time I was abeam him/her, about 400ft below, travelling in more or less the same direction. I got myself well out of the way and kept my eye on it for the next minute or so while it continued doing aerobatics. Then headed back to east mids.
Now as I said, I'm not trying to slag anyone off, but here are my questions. Firstly, what happened to Lookout? from my point of view the manouver which i almost got involved in was a roll off the top of a loop, which means that initially the other aircraft would have been on a reciprocal heading, and perhaps 300-500ft below me. Is it not sensible that before pulling up into you a loop you first lookout where you are intending to go?
Secondly, I was only at 2100ft (anticipating staying under the east mids CTA), so that means that this guy was doing aerobatics at around 2000ft. Now I have little aerobatic experiance but what I have done was always aimed to be recovered by 3000ft, that means starting at around 5000ft.
Ah well, thats it, rant over. I'd be interested in other peoples comments. I don't think i'm in a position to make any formal complaints as I dont have any details of the aircraft, so I guess thats the end of that, like i said, a pretty uneventful flight
Cheers
Owen