| Flight details: | No, I haven't converted to Judaism -- I'm just expressing my frustration. You wouldn't think I got 97% in my Pilot exam, would you? This should have been so much further.
I'd punched in a turnpoint at Greatham that would keep me clear of both the nearby danger area and the NOTAMed zone around Petersfield. However, preparing for what you would like to happen is sometimes very different from preparing from what's likely to happen. And the wind was off to the east...
My first climb took me to 2,000 feet ASL; not enough to go, but after it fizzled I managed to keep most of the height, and I was still at 1700 when a sizeable gaggle started climbing underneath me. Nice... I pimped my way over to them and we climbed slowly to 5,400, higher than I've ever been at Combe. It was a little awkward when two mini-gaggles joined together, as one was going left and one right, but we worked it out eventually.
Then we set off in a bunch under a lot of top cover. Steve Newcombe headed further east and got a bit lower; about five of us, including Franco, stayed together and had a buoyant glide to Hurstbourne Tarrant before we found another very weak climb.
That took us -- me, Franco, two Mentors and an Air Design -- past Andover, where I saw a new-looking Sigma get low and try to work the factories, while Steve on his Omega looked to be setting up to land just outside the town -- but, Steve being an excellent pilot, I made a note to keep an eye on him.
But then I was distracted by my various instruments warning me -- correctly -- that I was about to enter Middle Wallop MATZ. Not just the stub, but the round bit. Stupidly I was working on the assumption that, while we can fly though stubs, the round bit is an ATZ -- I'd forgotten that the ATZ is actually a much smaller bit at the centre of the MATZ. So I was puzzled as to why the rest of the gaggle was thermalling happily onwards. The answer was that they knew what they were doing. Meanwhile, I turned north-east to make s |
