Day 25

A 2 hour test profile today. A northerly departure from Bournemouth, to Kingsclere via Andover. Then on to Blackbushe, Basingstoke, Portsmouth and back to Bournemouth. Anybody look up at around 12.00 when I flew over Festival Place?

Having been to Kingsclere many times, it being on the main road from Basingstoke to Newbury, you might think that it would be easy to identify. However from the air a different set of features need to be used to positively identify a town or village. With the aid of a CAA 1;500,000 map, the following basic methods can be used:

Firstly there is the shape. Petersfield, for example, looks like a kidney.

Secondly, roads, rivers and railways may provide unique clues. e.g. Hungerford is the only town west of Reading where a river and a canal meet, alongside a railway line (and the railway crosses the river one mile further west).

Finally, certain other features such as racecourses, chalk carvings (left) and towers like the Hannington mast (right) might just remove any doubt. Kingsclere is about a mile north of the Hannington mast, which extends to 1200ft above sea level (500 ft above the ground), so its a dead giveaway. Of course you have to be above 1200ft on the QNH (sea level altimeter pressure setting) when you pass over it, otherwise its a dead pilot.

I tried to persuade my instructor that I was unfamiliar with the area, so that he would think I was finding my way properly, but when we passed overhead Basingstoke I made the mistake of pointed to my house, and the game was up. We then headed south over the Spinnaker tower at Portsmouth, and over to the Isle of Wight before returning to Bournemouth.