It also dawned on me that, after I don't know how many of these circuits, Horton Lane had promise as a place to play the aeroplane game. The top of a low hill and a reasonably clear northern horizon. Bright sunny morning. So I thought I was in business.
As it turned out, not really. I scraped a two at one point, but most of the time I had trouble keeping one aeroplane in view. I suppose that I might have done better had I stood still, rather than carried on walking, but I also think that maybe the bright light did not help and that, counterintuitively, one would do better in a duller light. Maybe nights and lights are best?
Next thought is that what I really need is a sighting table. That is to say a tripod, the sort of thing used for telescopes, theodolites and the the like, with a disc mounted horizontally on the top of it. A disc maybe 18 inches in diameter and complete with some sort of worm screw driven rotation - worm screw providing more control than just pushing the thing around by hand. Then fitted to the top of the disc, maybe half a dozen sights, perhaps along the lines of gunsights. The idea would be that you clocked an aeroplane, then fixed it in one of the sights. Clocked another and fixed that in the next, and so on. Slowly rotating the disc would, hopefully, keep all the sights trained on all their aeroplanes. I shall give some thought to how such sights might best be organised: are they within reach of my modest DIY skills?
The point of all this being that one would know where all the aeroplanes previously clocked were supposed to be, one would know where to look to find them. Without such a contraption, by the time one has found a new aeroplane coming in from the right, one has generally forgotten exactly where the old aeroplane on the left has got to. The contraption would tell one where to look, greatly increasing the chance of improving one's score. There would be the added attraction that most of the young lady joggers who inhabit Horton Lane would feel the need to stop and ask one what one was up to, so providing conversational opportunities. I should perhaps say that Horton Lane comes with all of cycle track, pedestrian track and wide verges so there is plenty of room for such games.
Some cynics allege that all this space is just waiting for Horton Lane to be dual carriagewayed and driven through Epsom Common to make an Epsom by-pass. In which event, I might be moved to dust off my protester's boots and uniform. Maybe even go so far as to make common cause with the Chain Saw Volunteers (see, for example, December 20th 2011 in the other place) as I imagine that they would be well up for such a protest, however much I might dislike their more usual activities.
PS: I suppose that a real geek would use his laptop, plugging into one of those radar feeds which tells you where all the aeroplanes are. See, for example, http://www.flightradar24.com/. Then one would really be in business.
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