Before I had finished my PPL course, I wanted to go to the College of Air Training auction at Hamble, after the College closed, as I wanted a Chippy prop for my Auster project. A friend of mine, Andy Watson, was a member of The Stevenage Flying Group and said he would fly me down to Hamble in the group’s Thruxton Jackaroo. We arrived at Old Warden and readied the ‘Roo for the trip, but, although there was blue skies, it was very hazy, so we waited for an improvement in the viz. Needless to say it didn’t improve, so we rubbed out the original lines on the chart, to be replaced with ones that followed road and railway lines. In due course we were following the A34 south. Sitting in the back, I spotted a Chinook very low below us. Next time I looked, it was climbing rapidly towards our underside!:eek: I alerted Andy, who peeled off to the right to avoid the beast! Stirred and a little shaken, we turned left onto the A303 towards Popham, where we needed to top up the tank. As we approached the airfield, Andy asked me to pass him the Pooleys to check the airfield layout. As I turned round, I inadvertently knocked the throttle shut with my elbow…:rolleyes: It went very quiet, except for Andy, who was frantically checking the fuel tap was on and that the mag switches were still on. Needless to say, after I had got the Pooleys, I realised what I had done, so smoothly pushed the throttle open again…:) To this day Andy still reminds me of this incident. Anyway after filling up and setting off along possibly the A272, we realised we weren’t going to get to Hamble in time, so Andy turned back towards to A303. As we were relaxing, a green Hunter, presumably from Farnborough, streaked across in from of us at the same height! I don’t recall ever trying to follow line features again!
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