Oh no! Now we might have to register fizzy drink bottles!

[cymaz]

According to Wikipedia the highest recoded ballooning spider was caught at just under 16,000ft !!

Good effort that

[David perry 1]

Yep, Daily Wail alright. Every page designed to make you angry. Terrible rag.

D

[Colin Leighfield]

About 20 years ago when flying my old Slim Jim at Fradley a pair of Tornados came in from behind at low level and flew underneath it as I was at the top of a loop. I thought "that's interesting" and went home. A few days later I had a call from the club secretary to say that pilots from RAF Cottesmore had put in a report of a near miss in the area and one said that a blue and yellow model aeroplane had passed over his canopy inverted. The AAIB had got involved.

As my Slim Jim was at the time painted in pre-war USAAC blue and yellow with the stars on the wings, the game was up and I envisaged 20 years in the Tower. (I would have been released about now). However I got totally cheesed off when I read the pilot's report in which he said that they were above 500 feet. At the time my ppl was active and I knew that even if they had been at 500 or so coming into the Trent Valley, when they crested the high ground North of Lichfield they were no more than 150ft above ground level, so I said so.

Anyway, it all blew over eventually. However it turned out that although SCRCAC had been flying on the old RAF Lichfield dispersal site since the 70s, just South of there on the A38 there was a private field where a Cub was kept and flown, on the other side there is another private field and only 5 minutes before a Chipmunk from there had flown across, slightly South of that is Sittles Farm airfield and North by about a mile is the micro-light airfield, the RAF had none of this detail on their charts. Something must have been done about it because I've not seen anything military fly directly over our field since. I was told that the Station Commander wasn't pleased when I asked if I could claim the Tornados as 2 probables, so I kept my head down after that.

Although it's a long time ago now, I bet I'm not the only one who's had a military jet fly underneath his r/c glider when slope-soaring on the Malverns, that must have been about 1977. I never heard any more about it.

Once I was flying a C152 out of Coventry and I'd been given clearance by the Yanks to fly across Upper Heyford MATZ at 2,000ft. It was fascinating to see an F15 go up in front of me about 1/2 mile in front, climbing at about 45 degrees. Not dangerous, but again interesting. On another occasion when flying a C152 from Coventry heading East, I saw a Harrier coming in fast from the right and he passed below me, probably about 100ft. away. Nothing I could do about it and I'm sure the pilot knew what he was doing, it was exciting all the same.

With all of that air space it's surprising how often just how close things airborne get very near to each other, fortunately a complete co-incidence in space and time remains rare. However, I can see that the current proliferation of quadcopter type drones that can be bought very cheaply and flown anywhere by anybody in complete ignorance of the ANO and not giving a monkey's anyway is starting to look like a real threat. There's bound to be a reaction. As far as the Coke-bottle water rocket is concerned, Erfolg is absolutely right. They're good for a laugh but if you get more than 100 ft. you're doing very well.

[J D 8]

During the early 80's I was flying my micro-light at 500 feet just north of Haverfordwest airfield when I spotted two dark spots in the sky in the direction of the Preseli mountains.They were growing in size very quickly and I soon realized they were two RAF Hawk trainers from RAF Brawdy heading straight for me. Before I could think of anything to do the the lead aircraft passed just in front and a bit below me and his number 2 went directly underneath only some fifty foot away.

I could look straight down into the cockpit and could see the pilots hand on the stick and the second pilot looking at notes in his hand.[This image has remained imprinted on my mind ]

None of the crew of either aircraft were looking at me. I suppose what I should have done was bank over to give a plan view of my aircraft as in the side view there was little to see, but from first seeing them it was only a few seconds before they passed.

I rang Brawdy to report the incident and was told the best thing I could do to avoid similar again was to keep well above 500 feet as they always at that hight!

[Colin Leighfield]

Martyn, just watched that video!

John, there'll be a few more experiences like that, fortunately they don't get too widely publicised.