Possible near mid-air - finding out details...
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Hyde, Cheshire
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As a very newbie Student pilot, I find it hard to spot other aircraft. Even after the instructor has pointed them out. To me, it does seem an awful lot are painted hazy murk colour, to best blend into the background. Very few seem to use strobes or any other sort of light to help with being seen.
Does See and Be Seen not apply more, in the air, than on the roads? The potential consequences of NOT being seen are FAR greater!!
Does See and Be Seen not apply more, in the air, than on the roads? The potential consequences of NOT being seen are FAR greater!!
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Oxford, UK
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Oscar Charlie, it might help to get a new pair of specs; I currently own SEVEN ! - one for piano, one for computer, one for reading the Times, etc. and TWO FOR FLYING! because the rules require you to have two pair handy, in case you drop one out the DV panel! And one of these is for cloudy days, the other for bright sun. And the most dangerous flight path is along a hill into low and bright sun, can't see ANYTHING.
I had a close call flying the tug on a hillside, climbing out of Shenington with a glider on tow, at about three hundred feet. Observing another aircraft coming toward me, also following the hill to use hill lift.....WOAH! That traffic is NOT another glider at a distance, it is a MODEL GLIDER! and very close indeed to our combination. The owner, down on the hillside, was freaking out big time. The instructor flying the glider on tow behind me hadn't noticed the problem. I turned left, very sharply indeed, and she followed the tug very nicely, and not until we had landed much later did we find it funny.
I had a close call flying the tug on a hillside, climbing out of Shenington with a glider on tow, at about three hundred feet. Observing another aircraft coming toward me, also following the hill to use hill lift.....WOAH! That traffic is NOT another glider at a distance, it is a MODEL GLIDER! and very close indeed to our combination. The owner, down on the hillside, was freaking out big time. The instructor flying the glider on tow behind me hadn't noticed the problem. I turned left, very sharply indeed, and she followed the tug very nicely, and not until we had landed much later did we find it funny.
Gnome de PPRuNe
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Oxford, UK
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No, never. Now that I am unqualified to fly solo being over 85 years old, I fly now with a safety pilot...usually an instructor and I trust he or she is carrying two pair of spectacles within easy reach. Anyhow, we had at least two pairs of specs between the two of us today, at Shenington.
Very few good thermals this afternoon, after a winch launch my flight lasted about ten minutes. When Instructor Gail took over, on our second flight, she managed 45 minutes and the day had not yet bloomed. Wind North Northeast. I was keeping a good lookout for the couple of gliders scrabbling around nearby, and realised that near Upton House there was one lonely possible cumulous. Gail let me have control, I slid under the promising bit of cu, and sure enough! The best thermal of the day, six knots. Scraped to just under cloud base at 6,000'. Lovely. And then flew with Bruno, checked out on airtow, sitting up in the front of the Kl3 glider, as students are required to do. The Supercub tug pulled us up to about 2,000', and we could have stayed up the rest of the day!
Very few good thermals this afternoon, after a winch launch my flight lasted about ten minutes. When Instructor Gail took over, on our second flight, she managed 45 minutes and the day had not yet bloomed. Wind North Northeast. I was keeping a good lookout for the couple of gliders scrabbling around nearby, and realised that near Upton House there was one lonely possible cumulous. Gail let me have control, I slid under the promising bit of cu, and sure enough! The best thermal of the day, six knots. Scraped to just under cloud base at 6,000'. Lovely. And then flew with Bruno, checked out on airtow, sitting up in the front of the Kl3 glider, as students are required to do. The Supercub tug pulled us up to about 2,000', and we could have stayed up the rest of the day!
