AIRSPACE INFRINGEMENT - I MESSED UP 

This is what I love about the aviation community all over the world. We own up to what we are responsible for, teach others, and learn from our mistakes. Great work!

I busted Bravo (KORD) once. Lasted for 3 minutes. Way too long.... No number to call given. Reported to NASA ( gives kind of relief if FAA wants to go after you). I love the regulation allowing pilots to “ confess” instead of going after us for every single mistake we do. If deviation is not serious FAA prefers to educate instead of penalize. What a great idea.

Good man for sharing! Being open about mistakes is how we learn as a community! It takes guts to put it out there and I’m grateful you did!

Thank you for sharing. It takes a certain level of integrity to share at your expense for others to learn from.

Well done for your honesty and sharing your mistake. I fly out of Tatenhill and have to watch the same airspace from the other side but enjoy a bit more of a buffer. With so many things to remember it’s so easy to miss something. On the whole you do very well. Don’t let it put you off. We’re always learning and if it was always easy it wouldn’t be as much fun! You should be very proud of what you’ve achieved, and no doubt there’s more to come.

And this is one further reason why the QFE is a completely rubbish altimeter setting that nobody else outside of the UK uses and really should be forgotten.

Great that you put this online. I made a stupid mistake 2 years ago. Was given a conditional clearance (line up and wait) on the runway. I thought I heard the clearance for cleared for takeoff not long after but misheard. Took off, knew i made a massive mistake. Told to call ATC on my return. To cut a long story short i had to have a meeting, went over my RT recording. Really embarrassing mistake. That was the end of it really after the meeting.

Not embarrassing at all, just shows how a simple you can wonder into control airspace by not realising being on correct pressure setting. QNH / QFE. Could I ask what the CAA have said & what are there intendtions

So are you supposed to stay to the qnh outside of the controlled airspace or the qnh within as I read they do differ?

Actually appreciate you posting the mistake. My airmanship back in 1998 in the US was fine but only re-started lesson after a 20 year absence and I'm finding there's a lot more going on and it's hard to keep on top of things, i.e. aviate, navigate, communicate. My comms in the UK is/was dreadful and I remember in one lesson, I went from 1300ft to 700ft to 1700ft when we were in Controlled Airspace "not above 1,500ft". Stangely enough, my (now previous) instructor just sat there and didn't say anything until after the infringement.

Well done on being brave for sharing. I really appreciate the chance to learn from your mistake. Thank you, it is much appreciated.

At least you’re staying current and building confidence and experience. More than I can say for myself so well done despite the error. It’s where we get our best lessons through mistakes, no one hurt no harm done so all good.

just after finishing studying altimeter settings and what to look out for. Great to see this real world example of what to be careful of when switching between the two.

Courageous and helpful of you to share this mistake. Being based at Barton, which is next to and under busy Manchester controlled airspace I’m always very concerned about the potential for busting the airspace. I tend to stay on QNH until I’m actually defending deadside. Good on you for sharing and I’m glad nothing bad came of it for you.

Were there any other consequences or actions? I've been told early in my training, to stick to QNH under high workload (approach to a busy airfield, complex airspace, task saturation), and be prepared with circuit altitude calculated and written down. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing. I did exactly the same on my QXC in September inbound to Cardiff. I'd changed to QFE after getting the ATIS but luckily Cardiff reminded me about 2 mins ahead and I reduced height. What was the conseqeunces from the CAA? One of my friends who flys tripple sevens said to me the day you think you've not made a mistake on your flight is the day you should give up flying.

Thanks for sharing this Adam, I really appreciate your honesty and it would have been far easier for you to have kept this to yourself and not shared all. We are all human and we all make mistakes, It’s about how we learn from it. Every time I fly I see pilots making a lot more dangerous and critical mistakes than the one you made. It’s very easy to pick things apart from the comfort of an armchair when watching a video back and feel that a lot of the comments on other forums about this video are quite frankly unjust and rude . TBH, instructors and examiners make a lot of mistakes too including non standard RT (like I said, we are all human). Keep up the great work and looking forward to your next vlog.

Great that you shared this. An easy mistake to make and probably made by many many other pilots. Great video as always, keep em coming !

Really good of you to share, really helpful for training pilots, particularly those flying out of Coventry. If we all share and educate it will help keep the sky safer. Thx

Always useful to learn from others. Thank you for sharing - every flight is a learning opportunity!

Thank you for your honest report and I found this very informative. I fly from north weald which sits underneath Stansted controlled airspace. I have to stay below 1500 feet QNH and use transponder which is compulsory ( compulsory transponder zone ) a number of people flying from my club at north weald have committed these errors most have had to do a course. Thank you for your vlogs I enjoy them very much. Regards Ian

Heya. Really glad you shared this as I fly from Tatenhill and I have transited BHX a few times but I do have one question. Despite having the QFE set and such, why did you choose to fly 1500ft when that is the lower limit of their CTA? Personally (Due to low hours, caution and redundancy) I might have chosen 12\1300ft which gives me room and a larger error margin. If this is within the 1000ft safety rule of course. I think it's fantastic you chose to share this and I know I'm not alone in knowing the best thing anyone can do is to understand and learn from others. Especially if you're thinking of flying distance through busy airspace. So thank you very much. If you visit Tatenhill you must let us know. We'll have to see if we can get you in a -181 ;) Happy skies all!

How did brum think you were at 2000'? From the video the max you were at on altimeter was 1650' and diff between the QNH you were on and the QFE is only 100' so you can't have been more than 1750' ?

Came over from instagram. Great for honestly for new pilots like myself. Keep up the good work

Great share very good advice!

Good for you for posting, food for thought for us all. I fly out of Fairoaks which is within Heathrow zone and we have always stayed on QNH and circuit height of 1100ft to accommodate it being 80 AGL. So this highlighted a useful watch out for me. You can see from your vlogs you take flying seriously and certainly no chancer!

I used to live right on the edge of Wellesbourne airfield as a kid. I was watching your landing closely to see if I could catch a glimpse of XM655 just off to the right at the end of RW18. It's one of my bucket-list items to fly into Wellesbourne, one day.

i have a question when you approach the airfield you switched to there qfe but before you were already at 1500 ft before so when you saw the difference when you switch you climbed to maintain 1500 ft is that what you did ? because i'm lost here why didn't you just follow the QNH ? and maintain altitude to join the traffic pattern

GPS’s are an easy way around these issues... that and a correct Altimeter Setting... as a kid flying in the USA, I was overly aware that ATC radar was somewhat flawed (sometimes huge discrepancies) and tried to stay 2 miles away or 300’ below/above airspace concerns... on my multi-engine IFR check-ride (in crazy windy and rainy weather) I was busted for going below the MDA (minimum decent altitude) by 20 feet.... I hit a wind gust that dropped us on approach by 300’ in a nanosecond. So, hence my 300’ rule.. Good lesson..

Nice! Thanks for sharing. That's super minor, I doubt they would ever give a penalty for something like that. I got distracted by trying to fix my broken seat slider latch in a c172 and busted my atc assigned altitude by 200ft and they just gave me a "arent' you supposed to be at this altitude we gave you?" .

Thanks. Good learning point.

My check flight is this may for my ppl, I'm happy to know that even after my student flying, it's not the end of the world if I make a mistake. Thank you for sharing

You learn everyday!!

Didn't your SkyDemon give you an alert warning when you entered the airspace? I'm curious as I've just started using it and I'd like to know if it's not reliable in any way.

Great video, I am currently doing my PPL and thanks for showing us how easy it is to make a simple mistakes and to learn from them. Apart from having Sky Demon, at least you had video evidence to prove your innocence. Onwards and upwards.. stay safe. 👍🏻👍🏻

What year is this Cherokee? I think I have the same exact one.

Great video, as many have said, its hard to share your mistakes but we all learn something in the end! I operate from elstree and stapleford, so have to deal with the LTMA esp for over head joins at elstree it can become abit iffy. If i could offer some advice take it or leave it! :) Personally i've always kept as far as practical away from airspace by at least 500 ft vertically in my hour building and that usually saved me the hassle of QFE and QNH changes but i way to conservative, During the cpl and meir, I found keeping 200ft or 300ft hard buffer for planned altitudes below CAS is the best way to go and gives you flexibility for minor changes in QNH as well as turbulence/thermals. I would only fly with a minimum 100ft buffer if it was over something substantial, such as a built up area/water but would pay extra attention to the altimeter and setting. Also when joining the circuit and getting a QFE, prior to setting, leave yourself enough time to self brief your approach inbound, normal stuff such as radios/join tracks etc, but also including the expected airspace restrictions and how the altimetery affects your buffer. That way you can double check everything is set up as well as gain a good situational awareness. Its stuff that you kind of get more training to do in the IR for approach briefings, but its definitely something I want to work into my private flying in an abridged form at least! I know its probably stuff you do already, and I hope I haven't bored you, but I guess sharing is caring!! All the best, fly safe!

Thanks for this. Its easy to make mistakes. Im sure im going to make a few. If you dont make mistakes, your not learning.

i am learning to fly and your help here is great for thank you

Good for you for posting. Not the easiest of things, by any means! Bravo!

Three most useless things in aviation: the sky above you, the *runway behind you, and the fuel not in your tanks. A fact I've always considered when faced with intersection takeoffs, and something I take even more seriously after suffering an engine failure on takeoff and making it back to the runway.

First I had to do some research. 38 years of flying and I had never heard of QNH or QNE. Second - Curious, when you called, what altitude did Birmingham say you had been? At anytime I am flying close to someone's airspace like this, I always obtain their altimeter setting, as variances can exist. Here in the States the altimeter setting on the ATIS could be 59 minutes old and cause an error. Finally I am very interested in the airplane you were flying. Looks like a Piper Cherokee, but I have never seen the upper windows in a Cherokee and have owned 3. Summary. I enjoyed the video and glad it went well for you. It was above and beyond the call of duty to share it. Lol. Not sure about one of the comments below. We use "Copy That" all the time. I have even flown with and worked with some Brits in airships that use that terminology. Lol

Really useful video, thanks for putting this up. Plus one for QNH only operation by the way. QFE (and regional pressure settings) should be a thing of the past in my opinion.. as your video shows only too well. Just one more thing. You "only"infringed for 60 seconds. But how was the Birmingham controller to know that at the time? The infringement could have continued for minutes, or your course could have changed or..... EGBB ATC couldn't know what would happen next of course, so ATC have to take immediate action to maintain separation with their traffic (which you will know nothing about). It can be very disruptive and does have safety implications. Great video with lots of learning points. All credit for sharing, well done!

Thanks for sharing, takes guts to do that - fair play Sir! 👍🏻👍🏻

Thank you for releasing this!

I agree with everyone who has thanked you for sharing something that many wouldn't because of the ego hit, or self conscious that people may just your technical prowess. But I also want to thank you for physically showing how it happened, how easy it can happen but mostly what consequences can arise from this kind of mistake ... In studies/ground school, I've heard it so many times from a lecturer or instructor what happens when airspace is violated, and they all just usually say that if it happens, a fairly terse atc communication usually ensues ... or atc contact you angrily ... interestingly your video shows it's actually handled a bit more maturely and calmly. I'd expect they might get angry if you were to maybe indicate that you thought they were overreacting and it wasn't such a big deal because you didn't hit any other planes or anything (which of course, it's totally a big deal) 😂 So thank you for the upload 👍🏼

My heart sunk when I saw you switch to QFE.. simple mistake though. Thanks for sharing.

A very minor error. My most embarrassing moment occurred during my flight test with an examiner from the CAA. I was doing fairly well and then he suddenly exclaimed: "fire in the cockpit, fire in the cockpit!!" All that was required from me was to produce the fire extinguisher but could I remember where it was located? No. He then pointed to it located under my seat. I was sure I'd failed. We landed and we sat in silence in the aircraft while he completed his paperwork. After what seemed an eternity he said: "congratulations - you've passed". I went and had a few beers. and wondered when I would be invited to join the Red Arrows.

My local airport. Shame that its about to go for good as I loved training there when it was under full ATC. You visibly went red when the controller told you to call Brum atc

Very easy mistake to make so don’t feel embarrassed. Thanks for sharing

Interesting video. I think flying QFE must be confusing. In France, where I am, flying QFE is forbiden in order to avoid this kind of mistake I assume. But we have to be aware of that if we fly in the UK. Here we are talking about 200ft max for less than 1 minute. The same could easily happen with convective air. Thx for the video!

The easiest way to avoid airspace infringement is get a full IR rating and always file IFR. Another suggestion. PLEASE equip your steed with a shoulder harness which can and do prevent fatal injuries in the event of an accident.

Curious why use the QFE and not QNH?

So easy to do, especially when in your head you'd already thought you were going to have a long final as well

I never ever make mistekes, eh mistaikes, I mean mistakes.......

Thanks for sharing

Easy mistake to make, nearly did it myself taking off out of Shipdham going out under Norwich CTA, luck for me ATC gave out a change in QNH and I found I was just 100ft below when I thought I was 500ft (thankfully I had been keeping hard on my hight for practice).

sooo.......what happend. I don't know the process of what happens after the phone call?

An incursion where I'm at is when a Black Hawk forces you to land, then Air Taxis behind you to your tie down. Couple guys get out then escort you inside.

Well done for sharing mate

This is pretty dumb. Not on your part, but on the part of whatever controller decided to write you up for busting the airspace. This would never happen in the US unless you caused a conflict. This might be one of the few areas where the US does it right.

Top man

routing over warwick at

Mistakes and bad decisions are two things..

But very well done for offering this as an educational video.

Hey. I was born in warwick as well

An easy mistake to make, thanks for sharing it. What did Birmingham have to say?

Why are you asking for joining "instructions" from a service that cannot provide same?

Shit happens. Seems like they made a bigger deal out of it then what they should have.

I thought QFE is only used in Russia and China🤔

Your at my house!

Operating on 2 different pressure standards seems ridiculous.

This is why in Australia no one uses QFE ever! Always QNH. I fly I Citation 560. @reidymitchell on insta.

Please don't say "Copy that". You must watch American cop shows.

Nice video, but man - change your startup technique! Going almost 2000RPM just after engine start is an engine killer. Keep it at 1000RPM maximum. You have no oil pressure for first few seconds and at that moment engine speed should be minimal.

200'? Tell'em to piss off. The airspace isn't calibrated that closely. Ha.

So, just a little bit pregnant then; not much, only slightly. Also, asking for a long final... when most are calling dead side descending. Irritating. You're sounding like a by-the-seat-of-their-pants chancer. Come on, you can do better. Thanks for the video nonetheless. Liked for honesty.

Clickbait thumbnail. Tired of drama.