| Flight details: | After much scratching around at Milk and a lot of up and down, I finally found a lovely climb out from the white horse. I knew the day would be difficult, as there was a NOTAM around Abingdon meaning options would be limited for XC, but frankly I thought I'd just be happy to get away, no matter how far. I was joined in my climb by John T and one other, and made it to base. Brilliant. The world felt like my oyster. However there was one fairly large fly in the ointment. Not all the local airspace had loaded correctly on my GPS (a user error, I'm not very good at this stuff). I noticed a glaring omission - Brize Norton, and then begun to worry what else might not be there. My plan was to try and scoot to the west of Brize, but without actually knowing where it was this seemed a risky manoeuvre. I scoured the sky looking for somebody to follow, but the other gaggle who had attempted that route (Mark, Hugh, Roger and Jess who eventually landed at Lemmington Spa) were long gone. With a heavy heart I flew straight through a few more lifty bits without turning, hunted for the sink, and landed after about 16 km. The sky had been looking great and there seemed to have been plenty of climbs, so I was very sad to leave it at that.
On the plus side I did have the classiest retrieve ever, in Mike T's Porsche. Thanks Mike!
Lesson learnt, check your airspace on your instrument, and always have a back up you can access just in case! |
