Years ago 3 Counties Aero Club at Blackbushe used to get its 150s/152s serviced at Lasham in 'Ned's Shed' situated just west of the main hangar on the north side. I was one of the club members occasionally asked to ferry aircraft down there.
SOP was to land on the grass area between the runway and the clubhouse/northern taxiway.
Going in there one day, I did a wide left hand circuit to 27, knowing the glider tugs normally but not always did right hands. Sure enough as I established at about half a mile, a tug with cable attached turned final from a right base in front of me. No sweat, he was clearly visible, but what did concern me was the glider/tug combination lined up on the grass, the glider with wings level, fortunately right next to the runway, thus leaving a strip to the right available for the tug and myself. Anyway I landed and taxied to Ned's Shed. After about 10 minutes, a guy wandered up from the cluhouse direction wearing a flying suit, pebble glasses and a cheesy grin. He asked if I was the one who had just landed and I said yes. He then berated me for landing on the wrong bit of grass, stating that where I had landed had been reserved for turf cutting and had large white crosses on it. I stated there had definitely been NO white crosses where I landed (I hadn't seen any anywhere in fact, and I checked for them when I taxied out to return to Blackbushe and still couldn't see them) and anyway a tug had landed on the same bit ahead of me. He refused to accept this saying I should have landed OVER the glider and tug, which as I said, had the glider at 'wings level' thus indicating it was about to depart! Now I'm not a fantastically experienced pilot, but I have done a fair bit of gliding as well as powered flying, and no way am I going to fly over a glider from 'above and behind' if I suspect it is about to launch, and I told him this. He left still maintaining I was in the wrong.
I think the attitude of this person was that although I was entitled to land there, he felt he had to make his mark to show I wasn't really welcome. Thankfully this was just one individual at Lasham and everyone else I've met there doesn't share this attitude.
Last edited by chevvron; 29th Jun 2012 at 23:39.