Sun Jun 27, 2021 4:17 pm
#1855299
A rather odd experience yesterday flying back from Lee on Solent to our strip in North Kent.
I'd love to know if it's happened to anyone else as it makes me doubt my lovely new SE2 - or maybe someone else's PAW, as you will see.
Brief overview;
Flying home from Lee on Solent as a 3 ship of Jodels ; picked up my colleagues 'trace ' on Skydemon right from taxi-out through take off and climb out.
I'm last as usual,and a bit slower as usual, and off we go East up the Solent with the other two in sight but pulling away.
I'm getting multiple targets 'painted' on Skydemon via SE2, all of which I see and are accurate as to bearing and relative height. I also see some aircraft crisscrossing to the IoW that don't show on screen. So far so ordinary.
A bit later I'm near Goodwood and to my surprise I see my 'leadship' trace is between me and the coast, lower down, climbing slowly and converging. This is very unusual as I've flown with him virtually every week for years and this is out of character plus his Jodel goes like the clappers compared to mine (annoying me in the process).
I've got a very very experienced passenger and I ask him to have a look. He can't see him so I S turn and have a look - I can't see him.
To cut a long story short, I followed the trace ( which was consistent, steady etc) all the way to Mayfield VOR, sometimes below, sometimes above, and closed to 1/2 mile with 2 sets of eyes looking for an aircraft I see every week without fail - and it just was not there.
I called out ' he's crossing the railway line..3, 2, 1, Now,etc etc but no sign of him at the designated spot at all.
One anomaly was that I had to slow down to avoid getting too close to the 'phantom trace' - this would never happen.
Then, I called 'he's directly over Mayfield VOR -now' and I knew he wasn't,as I was looking at it sitting in a field just ahead under a clear sky.
Passenger a bit bored of the game "no- he isn't".
As I glance down to SD maybe 30 seconds later (yes I was keeping a good lookout of the window!) the trace was at Crowborough, then 1 min later Tunbridge Wells.
That's going some, even for ' Rocketman.
So that's it really; can one trust the position of targets on screen- or not?
Sort of linked to this subject; on arrival at the strip I made my downwind call watching a Spitfire arcing round a nearby large landmark on the North Downs and rolling out straight down final, more or less pointing at me.
I repeated the call with a jokey addition of ' avoiding Spitfire' to alert my friend who was inbound close by.
He cheerily told me later that he got a nice wing waggle, all was well.
However, I had to change course, change power, change height and nearly passengers pants while established in the circuit and it's the third time I've had a close encounter with a Spitfire in a year but I've never seen one ' on screen'.
Do they carry any transmitting devices?
I love them to bits and would have a ride if it didn't mean sacrificing a years fuel for Jilly Jodel, but I see more out of the window than the Luftwaffe did and I'd like some warning.
Context- I usually see the two seaters around as I cross the Weald, North to South and back, but I think it was a single seater holding off to the North of Headcorn air show yesterday. Great that air shows are back on and it was Class G, so, No harm-No foul.
We have no ATZ, but are on all the charts.
No encounters warranted a MOR, airprox report or anything else, just asking if I should be able to see them on SE2/SD.
I'd love to know if it's happened to anyone else as it makes me doubt my lovely new SE2 - or maybe someone else's PAW, as you will see.
Brief overview;
Flying home from Lee on Solent as a 3 ship of Jodels ; picked up my colleagues 'trace ' on Skydemon right from taxi-out through take off and climb out.
I'm last as usual,and a bit slower as usual, and off we go East up the Solent with the other two in sight but pulling away.
I'm getting multiple targets 'painted' on Skydemon via SE2, all of which I see and are accurate as to bearing and relative height. I also see some aircraft crisscrossing to the IoW that don't show on screen. So far so ordinary.
A bit later I'm near Goodwood and to my surprise I see my 'leadship' trace is between me and the coast, lower down, climbing slowly and converging. This is very unusual as I've flown with him virtually every week for years and this is out of character plus his Jodel goes like the clappers compared to mine (annoying me in the process).
I've got a very very experienced passenger and I ask him to have a look. He can't see him so I S turn and have a look - I can't see him.
To cut a long story short, I followed the trace ( which was consistent, steady etc) all the way to Mayfield VOR, sometimes below, sometimes above, and closed to 1/2 mile with 2 sets of eyes looking for an aircraft I see every week without fail - and it just was not there.
I called out ' he's crossing the railway line..3, 2, 1, Now,etc etc but no sign of him at the designated spot at all.
One anomaly was that I had to slow down to avoid getting too close to the 'phantom trace' - this would never happen.
Then, I called 'he's directly over Mayfield VOR -now' and I knew he wasn't,as I was looking at it sitting in a field just ahead under a clear sky.
Passenger a bit bored of the game "no- he isn't".
As I glance down to SD maybe 30 seconds later (yes I was keeping a good lookout of the window!) the trace was at Crowborough, then 1 min later Tunbridge Wells.
That's going some, even for ' Rocketman.
So that's it really; can one trust the position of targets on screen- or not?
Sort of linked to this subject; on arrival at the strip I made my downwind call watching a Spitfire arcing round a nearby large landmark on the North Downs and rolling out straight down final, more or less pointing at me.
I repeated the call with a jokey addition of ' avoiding Spitfire' to alert my friend who was inbound close by.
He cheerily told me later that he got a nice wing waggle, all was well.
However, I had to change course, change power, change height and nearly passengers pants while established in the circuit and it's the third time I've had a close encounter with a Spitfire in a year but I've never seen one ' on screen'.
Do they carry any transmitting devices?
I love them to bits and would have a ride if it didn't mean sacrificing a years fuel for Jilly Jodel, but I see more out of the window than the Luftwaffe did and I'd like some warning.
Context- I usually see the two seaters around as I cross the Weald, North to South and back, but I think it was a single seater holding off to the North of Headcorn air show yesterday. Great that air shows are back on and it was Class G, so, No harm-No foul.
We have no ATZ, but are on all the charts.
No encounters warranted a MOR, airprox report or anything else, just asking if I should be able to see them on SE2/SD.