Sun Aug 01, 2021 2:25 pm
#1862402
Indulging in a non-aviation hobby today, I was working my allotment, which is in the corner of Aylesbury Vale, pretty much under standard entry/exist routes for Booker and Denham. There's class A above me at 2500ft, but cloudbase today has been somewhat lower than that, and terrain is around 500ft.
So between 500ft AGL, and the effective ceiling is probably 1500ft.
Today I watched multiple light GA aircraft, all around the same altitude, manoeuvring in the same space. At one point I saw a B206, PA28 and C152, in-sight at the same time, all manoeuvring, and all clearly changing flightpaths to avoid each other. The PA28 had what would be justifiably reported (although I'm sure they won't, and nor would I) airproxes with BOTH the other aircraft in the space of probably three minutes.
To the best of my knowledge, most of the local schools don't routinely fit any kind of electronic collision avoidance devices (by which I mean PAW or SE, I'm sure they've all got transponders), despite the double-double-fatal not far away at Waddesden a few years ago.
It's bandit country out there, for goodness sake put A LOT of effort into your lookout, and don't fly without electronic collision avoidance. At £300 for a PAW unit, there's absolutely no reason not to - but I'd put good money on 2/3rds of the aeroplanes I've seen today not having anything.
Frankly, I DO NOT want to have to interrupt my gardening to run to a fatal accident site in my village, and at one point today I was convinced I was about to.
G
So between 500ft AGL, and the effective ceiling is probably 1500ft.
Today I watched multiple light GA aircraft, all around the same altitude, manoeuvring in the same space. At one point I saw a B206, PA28 and C152, in-sight at the same time, all manoeuvring, and all clearly changing flightpaths to avoid each other. The PA28 had what would be justifiably reported (although I'm sure they won't, and nor would I) airproxes with BOTH the other aircraft in the space of probably three minutes.
To the best of my knowledge, most of the local schools don't routinely fit any kind of electronic collision avoidance devices (by which I mean PAW or SE, I'm sure they've all got transponders), despite the double-double-fatal not far away at Waddesden a few years ago.
It's bandit country out there, for goodness sake put A LOT of effort into your lookout, and don't fly without electronic collision avoidance. At £300 for a PAW unit, there's absolutely no reason not to - but I'd put good money on 2/3rds of the aeroplanes I've seen today not having anything.
Frankly, I DO NOT want to have to interrupt my gardening to run to a fatal accident site in my village, and at one point today I was convinced I was about to.
G
I am Spartacus, and so is my co-pilot.