Well done, sah! And if I may intrude with my own little announcement, I'd just like to say that after waiting some three (or is it four?) months to get on with it I finally managed to get my QXC done yesterday as well
Not the most ideal of days. Stapleford - Leicester - Cambridge - Stapleford, going out to the East would have been fine I suspect but the further North I went the murkier and more unpleasant it got; in places BKN down to 2,000ft or so, OVC not much higher, dark and rather dismal.
Set off from Stapleford shortly after midday, ducked under the clouds as I passed by Stevenage, started feeling a lot more comfortable as I went overhead the old Bedford areodrome and turned towards Sywell. Wellingborough under the nose, turn to the right, and finally in uncharted territory; haven't been this far north before, start feeling a little nervous as I wonder whether I'll actually be able to see the airfield. No need to be worried, though, spot Market Harborough very early on, the airfield should just be.... there. 28 on offer, join base, hit the tarmac like a lead balloon. Easy to misjudge, these wide runways.
Bump into a guy doing his QXC out of Norwich there, exchange pleasantries, get offered a coffee, but I know what I'm like - better not to drink anything until I get to Cambridge, don't have an empty bottle to hand. Set off again after about ten minutes, and run into my first bit of trouble. I take off on 28, head out over Leicester and turn crosswind, then downwind. The radio's off air, think about setting course overhead, decide against it; see the airfield behind me, set course, off I go. But a little later on I see Corby about two miles to the right of where it should be, and I correct course. I've been doing the checks, the compass is aligned with the DI, must have set course in the wrong place. Hey ho, I know where I am now, no problem. Ten minutes later wonder why Graffham Water is over there, when it should be over here. Check the DI again, nope, no problem - still aligned with the compass. Head over to my waypoint, start over. Wind must be a little stronger than forecast, so I adjust heading accordingly.
Then I get completely, and hopelessly, lost.
Bourn isn't where it should be. Neither, for that matter, is anything else. Look at the chart, look at the ground, don't recognise a thing. Look behind, can't see Graffham Water anymore, too murky, start to panic. Think I recognise a village to my left, turn towards it. Recognise nothing else around it.
Start to really panic.
I see a communications tower. Aha! Know where I am now. Do I head for it and plot a course from the tower to Cambridge? No, of course not. That would be the sensible thing to do. I turn around and try to find where I should have been. Get lost again. All the time I can hear Cambridge Approach and get annoyed as I wish they'd simply call me up and say 'head this way!'. But they don't.
Panicking too much, not thinking properly. Calm down, be sensible about this. Take a few deep breaths, take a good long hard look out of the window. Suddenly see such an instantly recognisable landmark that I wonder why on earth I didn't see it before. Then I realise I did see it before but was in such a panic that it just didn't click. Great, this time let's be clever. Look at the chart, plot the course (just with a pencil against the nearest VOR rose, but that's good enough) and head off to Cambridge. Two minutes later see the town, and just behind it see the white hangers. Breathe the longest and most enjoyable sigh of relief ever. Call them up, get offered an overhead for 05 and even get to watch a 727 take off ahead of me.
After I've landed and booked in I sit down with a cup of tea and take a few very deep breaths. Ten minutes later get back in Uniform Sierra, head off to Stapleford, call up Duxford and wonder why there's no response. Realise that I've actually dialled up Compton Abbas, retune, and the rest of the trip is completely, wonderfully, uneventful.
What went wrong? Well, I think I let myself relax a little bit too much. Didn't concentrate enough, and didn't realise that the wind might be doing something other than what it was forecast to do. When I realised I couldn't recognise the landscape anymore I should have taken a deep breath, checked the compass against the DI, calmly looked from chart to ground and, if necessary, retrace my steps; I'd been at a very obvious landmark only a few minutes before. Instead I panicked; ambled about in the dark trying to find something I recognised, in reality looking from ground to chart, not thinking.
I hadn't realised that I would react like that and I'm glad that I went through the experience, even if it's not one I'd care to repeat. Not something I'll allow to happen again.