https://youtu.be/f4T0utYN1pY
Flying along today, fat, dumb, and happy, looking at balloons flying in the area. Was heading west at 4500 ft then decided to change directions to the north east, and initiated a climb to 5500 ft. Crossing about 5000 ft almost got smacked by someone coming in the other direction. Happens at about 25 seconds into the video. No doubt they could not see me due to the sun right in their eyes. I saw them, but just kind of "deer in the headlights" for a second or two, then instinctively turned a bit to the left, but they were not going to hit me in any case. Not sure if my lizard brain said "no threat, nothing to do" and then when I started processing how close we would pass, I just moved the stick left, or what. Felt pretty strange, and really going to push me to get some kind of traffic warning, add ADS-B and FLARM. This area is a "choke point" in the country, so there is a lot of traffic on the weekends. I usually try to fly during the week when it's quiet, but a combination of shorter days and more early and late meetings at work has made this difficult.
Flying along today, fat, dumb, and happy, looking at balloons flying in the area. Was heading west at 4500 ft then decided to change directions to the north east, and initiated a climb to 5500 ft. Crossing about 5000 ft almost got smacked by someone coming in the other direction. Happens at about 25 seconds into the video. No doubt they could not see me due to the sun right in their eyes. I saw them, but just kind of "deer in the headlights" for a second or two, then instinctively turned a bit to the left, but they were not going to hit me in any case. Not sure if my lizard brain said "no threat, nothing to do" and then when I started processing how close we would pass, I just moved the stick left, or what. Felt pretty strange, and really going to push me to get some kind of traffic warning, add ADS-B and FLARM. This area is a "choke point" in the country, so there is a lot of traffic on the weekends. I usually try to fly during the week when it's quiet, but a combination of shorter days and more early and late meetings at work has made this difficult.