Most aviators will have a near miss with another aircraft sooner or later in their career. This begs the question. Why do they happen? What can be done to prevent them in the future? My story comes during the hour building portion of my flight training, so naturally I was a very inexperienced pilot just starting to gain confidence. Thankfully for me the situation was not fatal, however, it could have been. So, what went wrong?
This story is set in the North of England at an airfield called “Sherburn”. Sherburn is an uncontrolled airfield, this means there is no ATC and no one who has authority to control aircraft traffic. Sherburn is a fairly quiet airport with a variety of visiting aircraft. This includes old WW2 training aircraft like the “Tiger Moth” which are not equipped with radios or transponders. The significance of this will become apparent later on.
