Cessna Twin Driver - LOOK OUT there's a tosser about
After finally getting Annie the Auster in the air again. I took her up to start breaking-in the new cylinders. I was descending to the North of Baldock on the edge of the Luton Zone to enter at 1,500' as agreed with Luton Radar. I had spotted the Cessna 310 twin that Luton had identified and he passed well clear to my port and 200' higher than me.
As I turned to face forward after checking the 310 was clear, a large Cessna twin (a 421 I think, it had round windows and tip tanks) flashed above me maybe 100' up. He/she had obviously been tracking around the edge of the Luton Zone without talking to them and then disappeared in the general direction of Cranfield. It was the scariest moment of my 11 years flying and brought home to me that operating in and around a controlled environment is not as safe as I thought it was.
The questions that I would like to ask the Cessna driver came to mind when I was on the ground, having a cuppa, were these:
Q: Why clip the zone so closely when Luton are invariably obliging in Zone transits?
A: Because I'm a tosser
Q: Why not at least listen out on Luton Radar's frequency so that you can be aware of any aircraft likely to conflict?
A: Because I'm a tosser
Q: Why be at around 1,700' on an extremely turbulent day when you could be transitting at a much smoother 2,400'?
A: Because I'm a tosser.
Before anybody starts squealing about Mode-S and TCAS I was in communication with Luton Zone and was within 0.5 miles of entering it so any aviator with half an ounce of airmanship would not have been there without at least listening out on Luton's frequency and would thus have known I was there.
Rant Over.
At least now my Cirrus has her overhauled cylinders on, the mags have been refurbished and she is running like a watch. So good to be back in the air after so long waiting for bits!