Guy Blackstone, 59, (pictured) had just taken off in his Pegasus Quantum 15 when he saw the Hercules C130s heading towards him
A microlight aircraft was nearly smashed to pieces by two huge RAF transport planes travelling low at 240mph because it was so small it did not show up on their radar, a report has revealed.
Guy Blackstone, 59, had just taken off in his Pegasus Quantum 15 when he saw the Hercules C130s heading directly towards him.
He was forced to do a tight turn and reduce height to avoid the aircraft as they flew at 250ft over Brown Shutters Farm airfield at Norton St Philip near Bath, Somerset.
Mr Blackstone, who served in the Royal Marines as a helicopter aircrew, said he had made standard radio calls and did pre-flight visual checks before taking off.
But seconds after becoming airborne he saw the two aircraft around half a mile away, heading directly towards him.
The planes had closed to 500 yards in the four seconds that it took him to assess his options and reduce height while steering away without hitting power lines or farm buildings.
A report by the UK Airprox Board which investigates near misses, said another pilot who witnessed the incident from the ground had described it as being ‘bloody close’ to a collision.

A microlight aircraft was nearly smashed to pieces by two RAF Hercules planes (stock image)

The planes had closed to 500 yards in the four seconds that it took him to assess his options and reduce height while steering away without hitting power lines or farm buildings
Mr Blackstone, a married father-of-four, described the risk of a collision as ‘high’.
The crews of the C130s, which were flying in formation on a low level training mission, said they had not seen the microlight which was too small to appear on radar.
The report stated that the slow-moving microlight may have been difficult to spot ‘against the backdrop of the ground’.
The Airprox Board ruled that the two RAF planes had ‘flown into conflict’ with it by not actively avoiding air traffic above the airfield.
The report rated the near miss on January 10 as the second most serious Category B incident, and ruled ‘safety had been much reduced below the norm’.

Mr Blackstone, who has 900 flying hours experience, said: ‘The planes were half a mile away when I first saw them. I had to assess the position of overhead wires and farm buildings before I turned sharply away. It was on the edge of my aircraft’s capabilities’
It recommended that HQ Air Command should ‘review the education of military pilots with regard to their responsibilities in respect of the avoidance of minor airfields.’
The lead RAF pilot told investigators that the two planes had additional pilots and loadmasters on board as it was a training exercise.
The pilot added that RAF crews tended to avoid flying low over minor airfields, although there was no requirement to do so,
But the pilot said that there were limited options to bypass the area as it acted as a ‘choke point’ funnelling aircraft through due to other airspace constraints.
The two crews kept a ‘robust look out’ and sighted other aircraft on their flight, but saw nothing ‘close enough to the formation to raise concern’ as they went over Brown Shutters Farm airfield.
Mr Blackstone, who has 900 flying hours experience, said: ‘The planes were half a mile away when I first saw them. I had to assess the position of overhead wires and farm buildings before I turned sharply away. It was on the edge of my aircraft’s capabilities.’