CAP Pilots

[soyAnarchisto]

Very familiar. I have met the glider pilot who was in tow.

Any pilot can become distracted - and you have to do some multi-tasking even to change the radios so the fact that it was a Cirrus with a glass panel. Obviously none of the 3 pilots were aware of the others. I see this ALL the time here. With ADSB - the Cirrus pilot would have been FAR more likely to be aware of the presence of the other aircraft in close proximity and in all liklihood heightened his looking out the window.

You cannot blame all mid-airs on the pilots not looking out the window. With ADSB planes broadcast their position more frequently and more accurately - and this is only a good thing. Even if you don't adopt any glass inside your plane - having your whereabouts known to others is FAR better than without. There are many situations where you can't see other planes: colors like white are hard to make out against sky/clouds/overcast, sun glare, wing orientation high/low etc... Believe it or not - planes are really hard to see - even when you know where they are - or where they think they are on the radio.

It is lunacy to argue that just because people may have more electronics in their aircraft we should not adopt more accurate position reporting technology. Under the auspices that with less technology people will be forced to look out of the plane? That is just plain ridiculous.

The problem with 2020 ADSB is that it doesn't go far enough. Every thing 400ft AGL and above, from part 103 to model airplanes, to drones, to gliders and no electric cubs should have been required to be on all the time. Maybe someday we will get there.

Here's another one - happened more recently - one of the pilots was a DPE - very accomplished pilot - and the other plane had a CFI. Neither plane had any electronics in it.

http://www.timescall.com/ci_21434044/agency-faults-pilots-after-fatal-midair-collision-over

 

[skywagon8a]

I feel sorry for you. You are apparently one of those who has their mind made up and refuses to see reality. Have a nice day.

 

[Carey Gray]

Since you've explained it that way, I feel like a ridiculous lunatic.
Or, as Mom used to say with tongue firmly in cheek "Those people who think they have it all figured out are very annoying to those of us who actually do".

 

[soyAnarchisto]

Don't feel sorry for me. I will have the best of both worlds. I am fully capable of keeping my eyes out of the plane as much as possible and fortunate enough to be able to equip for ADSB Out and In - and will benefit from improved situation awareness. I am not so foolish to think that I can see everything nor am I myopic to just glare at the magenta lines in the cockpit and think everything is hunky dory. It's worth $3k to me to show up on the glass panel of the moron who won't look out the plane - whereas you would rather tilt at the windmill and argue we should ignore the technology and hope everyone magically realizes they should be looking out more. I get both sides of the argument.

Yes, I have made up my mind (like you)- and waiting for the rest of the community to get there too. I'm pretty sure it will happen. Like I said, I could be wrong - you could be too.

 

[cubdriver2]

It's a false feeling of security. Like I tell my IFR buddies with the warm feeling that Center gives them enroute. I landed 20 minutes behind them on their IFR FP and told them I was playing in the canyons between the clouds they just flew through. Totally legal.

Glenn

 

[Gordon Misch]

All sides of this argument are making valid points. It seems there is no simple drip-dry, wrinkle-free answer.

The scariest near-midair I have had was with a hang glider. My eyes were very much outside the cockpit while rounding a small mountain (big hill?) while getting some free lift from the wind. A hang glider was doing exactly the same thing from the opposite direction. We passed VERY close - maybe 50 or 100 ft or thereabouts. Absolutely no time to react once visual contact was made. Again, I was looking entirely outside, but admittedly not looking for hang gliders coming the opposite direction, and obviously the hang glider pilot was not fixated on instruments. But a near-miss happened. The ONLY solution was for both of us - especially me, probably - to be ALWAYS looking for traffic of all sorts. ADSB magic would NOT have mitigated that near-miss. Parenthetically, I've since learned that that mountain is a commonly used hang gliding location, so in the future I will stay away from it, or at least be EXTREMELY alert.

On the other hand another recent close one was in straight and level cruise flight, with a Bonanza going the opposite direction, very slightly below us (I was traveling with a friend in our two planes). We were at a proper VFR altitude though very close to due north, and were not using flight following from Seattle Approach, even though I usually do. An ADSB readout in the cockpit MIGHT have helped in that case, and if on flight following ATC most probably would have alerted us. I'm going to get back in the habit of using flight following within radar coverage areas, that is when I'm enroute and not just piddling around. Very, very rarely have I seen any traffic that ATC hadn't already called for me.

For what it's worth, my wife has pretty darn sharp eyes, and she sometimes calls traffic for me that I haven't caught yet, even though she's in back! So yeah, those other aircraft are just plain hard to see sometimes!!

 

[Alex Clark]

Wow two whole pages and totally jumped the tacks to another subject.

 

[mvivion]

Wow two whole pages and totally jumped the tacks to another subject.

Alex,

We're taking bribes from CAP, obviously. Tin hat re-engaged....

MTV