A few posts in here warrant a chuckle... I can relate to Cold air's mid air braking attempts, faced a similar scenario last year on my way to Blackpool via the Low level VFR corridor (Manchester TMA fly not above 1300ft). Saw a massive flock of seagulls in my 12 O'clock opposite direction North to South headed straight for my ship over Warrington. Hit the brakes..no cigar
Rapidly begged Manchester on the RT for a heading & height deviation ASAP, got the greenlight & banked 30 degrees left (towards Liverpool) going from 1100 to 1500 with the seagulls passing just below our port wingtip making their way leisurely with blatant disregard for their inconvenience
Stupidest thing I have ever done came in my early PPL'er phase, in fact I made a point to document it in detail - you can read all about it here:
http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...-intended.html
Lesson thoroughly learned & valuable MET insight gained firsthand
