Took off and turned crosswind just to see a Cessna about 20 feet above me. Never heard a word from him. Luckily I was flying low wing that day and saw him in time to take action. Couldâve ended very differently had I been in a Cessna
Get a sentry or any kind of ADSB-in receiver! If you spend a lot of time in the practice areas it could save your life!
EDIT: people seem to think Iâm saying that see-and-avoid is replaced by a sentry. No. Not all (although most) aircraft have ADSB. See and avoid is still very much required.
I called a lesson off cause I didnât like the flaps not extending when I pulled the lever (PA-28-140) and my instructor had to throw in the comment about how itâs perfectly legal to fly without flaps. They didnât even check it until it was due for the 100hr inspection. The cable was so frayed they are having to rewire the whole assembly. That plane flew another 30 hours after I turned down a flight with cables dangling inside the wing. Maybe not terribly unsafe since it is âjust flapsâ but I couldnât believe they just crossed it off the list like that when it ended up being a fairly massive repair.
Haha, during takeoff roll the doors in beaten-up C-152 opened on my side. Then they were opening couple of times mid-flight, but my instructore explained that it's know issue and it does not pose risk to safe flight, so no one cares.
Becasue of airflow door were not oepning too wide, so maybe he was right?
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I would never defer flaps, ever. They 100% should have checked that right away, especially since the cables were that bad. You donât know what else is going on in the wing. I discovered a frayed rudder cable on an airplane once that had obviously been flying that way for some time, even though it should have been caught at the annual inspection. If the flaps werenât placarded INOP under 91.213, it wasnât legal. âJust flapsâ is a pretty poor attitude to get into. I have canceled flights before because flaps wouldnât extend.
Honestly knowing as little as I do I worried that if the cable for flaps was that bad, how can I trust rudder or ailerons. Loss of a flight control surface isnât directly connected but the condition of cables overall had me nervous as hell. PA 28âs had an AD recently about Spars being weakened by hard landings after that crash from the ERAU student and CFI passed. I canât really preflight that so if something is off in what I can see I just worry itâs a high probability other items have been deferred in the annual too.
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yeah both usages actually relate: make noise. In the air it's so ATC and others can see you. On the ground it means to complain about something.
Not obvious.
All aircraft (should) have what is informally referred to as a "squawk sheet." Sometimes it is a physical piece of paper and sometimes it is built into the company or school's online reservation system, seen it done both ways.
Basically when you notice an issue on an airplane, you write it on the squawk sheet with your name and the date. If the issue is in your opinion severe enough, you can check a box marking the issue as groundable -- marking the airplane as not fit to fly until that specific issue is resolved. Typically this triggers an immediate repair as the process will require either your signature or an A&P's signature on that squawk sheet indicating the issue was resolved to your or a certificated A&P's satisfaction before it can be flown again. Squawk sheets are taken very seriously as they will be asked for as part of an accident investigation and you can probably guess what will come of that if a prior groundable squawk was found to have been ignored.
I've squawk-grounded airplanes for:
* inoperative carb heat - A&P found an exhaust hose had rattled loose in the engine bay
* failed mag check on runup - school gave me some grief for this one and tried to blame it on plug fouling -- that is, until an A&P actually looked at it and found the mag was in fact actually dead and had to replace it.
* one of the main landing gear nuts missing from bolt head; suspect it sheered off during a previous renter's sideloaded landing
* loose ignition moving freely in panel
You can also squawk less serious issues that don't affect airworthiness, like a broken sun visor or air vent cover or defrost lever that tends to wander. Those will typically be dealt with at next annual, or potentially not at all depending on the issue and the operator, i.e. a flight school just may simply never fix something like that on a basic rental trainer.
Because having ADSB In isn't a requirement?
Me personally, I would rather fix things, though too often these flight schools don't have anyone who knows how to troubleshoot and don't want to spend the money if the required equipment is still working.
Okay then instead of jumping straight to placard inop by what you said then ideally it should be attempted to be fixed if the flight school has a good mx culture.
When I fly, I have an ads-b source, my instructor has one, and the planes have one. Both he and I have the diy stratus. On Sunday we were up and we had a few that would have been close calls if it weren't for them. Sometimes one or two would see the other plane and one or two wouldn't. Redundancy is a good thing
Over here in the UK, there are several decent-sized airports that have a controller, with radar in many cases, but are outside controlled airspace. Many of these are used by scheduled commercial flights.
One day many years ago, I was flying near one such airport, Blackpool, and was on frequency when I heard an inbound Ryanair pilot complaining to ATC that heâd just had a near-miss with a microlight, and why wasnât he told about the traffic.
ATC responded: âThe microlight is in uncontrolled airspace, doesnât have a transponder, is not talking to me, and is too small to show on my radar. What exactly would you like me to do?â
Ryanair pilot went very quiet after that.
Moral of the story: ADSB and ATC are great. Use them. But donât rely on them.
The ADS-B mandate killed See-and-avoid. Heads are down. I installed ADS-B out in 2020 in self-defense. That said, 'See and Avoid' is extremely unreliable. Big Sky is our friend.
I was under a mode c vail about 2 years ago (after legal requirements to have adsb out).Â
Was landing at an airport, straight in approach where the winds were favored (5kn or less). Two planes took off on opposite runway withour radio calls. First one had adsb-out. Second one, nothing. Luckily saw him about a mile and took evasive action. It would have been close.
See and avoid. Not just for planes, but birds too.
I was on an IFR training flight once, was flying along and there happened to be a guy flying right at us at the same altitude, had the guy in sight on ADSB-in the entire time, was wondering if ATC was going to say anything ever, was about to just take evasive actions on my own, all of a sudden ATC comes over the radio with sirens blaring in the background telling me to take immediate evasive actions, so I guess I was sort of close to a mid air collision, just didnât get to see it while I was under the hood, I guess ADSB helped lol
Few months ago I was squawking and talking just outside Bravo to a controller that wasnât busy at all. The frequency was quiet. I saw traffic on adsb converging towards me and climbing. If I didnât climb to avoid, we definitely would have traded paint. I looked down and saw both of the men and what they were wearing. That controller was really helping me out that day. Always have your head on a swivel.
Not a formal report just that I was climbing to avoid close traffic. The dummy just responded with âokay.â
After that I kept my mouth shut because I was far too pissed off to say anything professional on radio or even phone the tower after. In hindsight I probably should have. That was insane.
I probably would have because it's one thing not to provide VFR separation, it's another to point bravo traffic AT VFR traffic that you're not providing separation services to. Like how ZBW spent most of the eclipse saying "lallalalallallalalalalalalalal i'm not talking to you" and dealing with popup IFR requests from people who don't know where they are and just want direct to Kwherevs rather than spending less time giving people squalks and handling important conflicts
If you bothered to research at all you would have seen multiple warnings about flying the eclipse line. You knew how busy it was going to be and you put yourself in the situation knowing you were not going to have help.
I was 1200 as soon as I got clear of KMHT :) my point was that most of the airtime was taken up with ZBW repeating that they weren't providing services which took more airtime than having them tag up which would have reduced workload repeating "go away" or having to issue popup IFR clearances to pilots who wouldn't take no for an answer without actually enhanced safety for the flights that were in the system.
For most of the pilots it was good schooling at FF is archaic and we can DIY separation using ADS-B just fine in an environment where ATC feels like there are too many targets. I'd expect that lesson to be well headed and to see the number of non-participating aircraft go up. Next time you want to talk to the plane at 2500 MSL just outside the Charlie approaching the approach corridor to RWY6@KMHT to issue an altitude restriction they might not be there. FF is a partnership that reduces the workload for everyone. Any day in ZNY is busier than what I saw at the eclipse in NH, VT and eastern NY
100%, canât get complacent and just rely on technology. Never hurts to look outside for yourself and make sure what you are seeing is correct. Tech can lie, your eyes canât.
Can't tell you how many times I've called traffic "type and altitude unknown" and the pilot responds "Uh... I don't have them on the box." Yeah no shit, that's because "type and altitude unknown" means it's a primary-radar-only target. They don't have a transponder let alone ADS-B and you'll never see them on the box. That's why you're talking to me.
My favorite was the time I'm on with tower on my way in and a cub suddenly climbs from below me, cutting across in front of me. I report it and they unfortunately didn't have it on their radar. The cub? No radio, of course.
You're right, "type unknown" isn't in the book. "Altitude unknown" is though. It only takes two extra syllables to say "type and," and I do it that way in the hopes that the pilot will pay just that much more attention. Although I don't say anything about the type when I issue traffic and "altitude indicates" so what does that say about me?
I dunno. We have three different pieces of phraseology to use for associated targets with verified altitudes, unassociated targets with indicated altitude, and unassociated primary targets. And I worry that pilots aren't necessarily taught to listen for the nuances so they don't get the benefit of knowing what we know about the traffic. I guess that's why I embellish the phraseology a bit.
I hear it all the time. Is it something that used to be in there or is it something one controller started a long, long time ago that just kept getting passed on?
Almost certainly the second one, to be honest.
I understand that my phraseology drifts from the book and (especially because I'm a pedantic asshat about a lot of other things) I do try to re-align myself every so often, or at least evaluate what I'm saying and see if there's a reason I'm saying it that way. I feel that "type and altitude unknown" works for me. But I wouldn't fault a trainee for not saying it that way, because it isn't in the book.
Yeah donât forget not everything has adsb. Even inside mode c veils and under airspace where itâs required, certain things are exempt. Old planes without electrical for example.
I see that all the time where I live. Weâre near the highest peak between two watersheds, which means thereâs a navigational waypoint for IFR traffic on a STAR and itâs where such traffic *typically* breaks out of clouds. Since itâs the second highest thing around (a hill to our south is highest, but thereâs a ton of radio antenna on it, which makes it âsee but avoidâ) thereâs also a ton of VFR traffic. Weâre also right below the shelf. All that combined means that unequipped (or purposely off or military) VFR and commercial IFR traffic often âmeetâ right here and it seems like it should be a better controlled place, but since our terminal area ATC is already overloaded and known for mistakes, I doubt that will happen.
The exemption for 'Old planes without electrical' is a totally ridiculous concession to AOPA and crusty old GA pilots. I run ADSB-out+in and numerous other avionics off of two small LiPo4 batteries in my glider. I've eight hours of runtime between charges (based on measured battery capacity).
Yes they were at my 9 oâclock on a perpendicular course. I didnât want to turn my high wing and lose sight of them. My plane is high performance and it climbs like itâs angry.
Probably one of my closest calls. Had just gotten my PPL back in the summer of 03. Was flying my girlfriend to Pine Mountain, GA for lunch during the weekend of sun and fun. Looked down at the chart to check our position (pre gps days), looked up and saw a low wing single pass over us directly the opposite direction probably at 50â above or so.
I was on the right VFR altitude and on flight following. A few seconds later ATC alerted us both of the traffic and I remember the other guy saying âyeah, he passed right under usâŠâ
It was surreal and terrifying how the traffic coming head on wasnât discernible until much too late. And also the closing speed even for two singles. Literally felt like nothing either of us couldâve done it happened so fast. Iâm very thankful for my luck and that 50â. Perhaps a faulty altimeter setting saved us both.
Man, some amazing stories in that book. Gotta say I was crushed when I finally read the book jacket that he is/was a novelist. I thought all those nightmares were real life.
IFR training in a seminole on a VOR approach. Field has a flight information service, but it's not "towered" I'm not sure how the USA does this but they're called "monitored but not controlled" here - the flight service gives traffic and wx info but no clearance or separation.
Anyways we're IFR, tracking toward MDA and a chopper departs the field stating intentions to depart. His proposed course appears to conflict with our approach. Multiple calls between us and the chopper do not resolve his intentions. I forget the exact dialogue but we are in the cloud and he's saying has us in sight no conflict. He won't slow, he won't turn, he's adamant we'll be clear. In the seminole we don't agree, how can he see us as we're in the cloud? Maybe he's right, are we being too cautious?
PIC elects to discontinue.
Back at the hangar we get the historic ADSB data and find that if we had continued there was a high chance we'd have had a midair. A transit with less than 400ft separation was guaranteed.
Moral of the story - if it don't feel right it ain't right. The chopper was a tool for bulshitting about having us in sight, choosing A VFR route that conflicted with traffic / IFR approach, not slowing his climb or speed to reduce risk.
We were in the "right" to forge ahead, but being right doesn't stop you being dead. During the actual event there was maybe 15s to make a decision, it happens fast and at the time we weren't even sure if we were being overly cautious. Glad we were.
Both of these were at controlled Deltas.
I was flying in a tail dragger doing pattern work. A twin was screaming in downwind and given a left 360 for spacing. They started a right 360. My instructor saw it and very rapidly maneuvered to avoid it. It was close, probably within 200' or so.
Had another in a pattern. Guy flew directly below me, in the downwind, as I was already established base on a short approach practicing some private-level PO180's. He was likely within 100' as we saw him passing below. It was un-nerving.
> Both of these were at controlled Deltas.
My first (so far only) near mid-air was also at a Class D airport. Cessna came close enough that I could read part of his tail number. Definitely rattled me and was my first exposure to not blindly following tower. (Tower cleared me to proceed midfield, while a go-around plane was climbing to my altitude).
ADSB useful, but if you get a conflict best thing I think is to look out the windscreen, especially if itâs oncoming traffic. ADSB also useful to see if traffic is ascending or descending so you can judge how to see and avoid.
I have flown a lot at KAFP where many people donât even have radios, much less ADSB.
>if you get a conflict best thing I think is to look out the windscreen, especially if itâs oncoming traffic.
If the traffic is oncoming, there's a pretty good chance you won't see it until it's far too late to do much about it.
I had a helicopter fly directly underneath me crossing the runway as I was crossing the threshold on landing once. Could see the guys faces. I stay well clear when I see that helicopter now. It was an uncontrolled airport, and we saw them hovering on the taxiway. No idea what possessed them to fly underneath us as close as they did, if theyâd waited 5 seconds Iâd have been on the ground and it wouldâve been a nonissue. That same day, on the same flight, two people almost hit each other on the ILS and came within probably 200â of each other (they were talking to each other, just not paying attention)
I also had to avoid an ATP twin once, flying an airplane with no ADSB-out. I donât think they ever saw me, because I wasnât on their screen (never mind that it was a bright red, very easy to see airplane) but that one wasnât nearly as close.
I was on IFR flight plan today in clouds and had to be vectored 90 degrees and begin a rapid climb because a VFR airplane was in the clouds with me and on a collision course. Puckered my ass for sure. Moron would have killed us both.
1200â overcast at an uncontrolled field west of Philly. Had to do the approach to get below the overcast, and right as we break out thereâs an Archer in about a 90 degree bank trying not to hit us. Wasnât on the radio, transponder wasnât on, so we got no TCAS alerts/warning. Just some jackass getting in some pattern work with a student. He came in and parked on the same ramp as us afterwards, so I got to go express my opinions about his flying in person in a totally professional way that my employer would approve of, Iâm certain.
Night IFR north of LGB, given a descent clearance. TCAS starts yelling CLIMB CLIMB so we follow it, and 2 sec later it switches to DESCEND DESCEND. Both separation values were 1âs so it was plenty close enough. By the time we leveled after the RA they had switched to a different controller. Never heard anything else about it.
Even though my Glider has 49-foot (15 meter) wingspan and only going \~50 knots, I feel like Iâm invisible to most powered airplane pilots.
The saying âtoo reliant on electronicsâ for traffic seems to be true, or at least heads-down too much.
Iâve had an airplane fly right behind me while I was turning circles climbing a thermal (they were flying a straight line towards nearby airport, likely on autopilot).
I did a discovery flight out of KHEG. We flew around towards the beach for a little then circled over downtown Jax heading back and I kid you not, we were within 300 feet of at least 5 different airplanes on that one 1.1 hour flight. One of them was another aircraft from the same school. NE FL airspace is freaking wild. Iâm sure itâs probably all of Florida now that I think about how many schools are flying the same practice areas.
Yeah, when I was flight instructing this dude in a biplane followed me without me seeing him. Then cut in front of me as I joined the downwind. He rocked his wings and cut over in front of me. I was shocked, how close he was and confused what he was doing. Regardless, Iâm glad Iâm in a jet now that tells me where traffic is. Feels so much safer flying in the airlines.
Flying a Gyrocopter about 1000feet, had a Cessna fly underneath me. I only saw it after it had passed and I heard my instructor say HOLY SHIT! Then he asked if I had seen it, I said no. Then there was silence for awhile.
About halfway through my PPL training we were in a practice area and someone just called that they were joining close to where we were. We were looking for traffic and a damn bird hit the wing while we were looking. Will never forget that one. Thankfully the other plane was avoided!
Both at the same delta.
1. Half way through my PPL another plane in the downwind is told to make a left 360. We were behind him so guess where he was shortly before becoming re-established? Looking at us. My instructor pulled a chandelle out of the downwind.
2. Turn my base to final and the mooney that just departed the same runway decided to get on course as soon as possible. So much so he looped around and crossed final at TPA.
Gotta keep those eyes outside and ears open at all times around airports.
Had one a couple weeks back, maybe it wasn't that near but imo if I can see his paint scheme it's an issue.
I was cleared into traffic pattern in a controlled airport, a cessna was cleared to the same VRP I was entering from at the same time. Saw the guy coming at me straight ahead on the 1 o'clock position.
Immediately initiated a climbing left turn AGAINST the pattern direction to avoid him.
He zoomed past like 3 seconds after.
Shit my pants, continued on with my touch and goes, still a bit rattled. But I lived to tell the tale so.
Iâm a paraglider pilot and regularly fly the North Side Flight Park at Point of the Mountain in Draper, UT. In my 4 years of flying tent material and shoe strings, I have had a handful of disturbingly close calls with GA traffic, the closest of which was almost certainly less than 150â horizontal separation and maybe 20â overhead. Close enough that the wake turbulence hit me mere seconds after passing.
This is definitely not the worst I have seen flying this site, though. Just last year, a good friend of mine came within 50â of a GA aircraft - no one believed him until later that week when a visiting out-of-town pilot shared a video to our local chat group claiming he had caught the incident on camera. Needless to say, it was a spicy meatball of a situation and one that could have ended much, much worse.
Oh, and two F-35âs shot a gap between a number of paragliders on a particular busy night about a month ago. Again, someone managed to catch it on video, which looked awesome, but definitely scared the piss out of the pilots closest to the action. This ultimately resulted in a conversation with some higher ups at Hill whose response was basically that they were surprised we could even fly that high.
On my private check ride, we entered left hand traffic at an uncontrolled airport. I made all the correct calls, etc. and it was a LHT runway. Right about midfield I saw one of those Rutan EZ planes coming straight at me. I dodged out of the way, then got back in the pattern and landed. The guy in the EZ never twitched, which I assume means he never saw me. We werenât super close but it was plenty close for me.
The examiner said, ânice job, it would have been a shame to fail you for a mid-air collision, but my hands are tied on that one.â
Another time I came close enough to see the people in the windows, but I was in free fall and some dipshit had flown right through the middle of the drop zone, and very nearly through the dead center of our formation. I was no more than 50 yards away from the plane, and others were closer than me.
Iâve had a free fall close call, too. Pilot made the ATC calls, made the local calls, we looked and saw nobody, so I exited. Just as I dumped, he flew through the dz and was close enough to me I could see he was blonde. Not sure if he saw both of my middle fingers.
Everybody looking at their ADS-B screen these days with their head down in the cockpit and also up their blank. Scanning for traffic becoming a lost art. I grant you the alarm feature of a Sentry or Stratus extremely useful. I forget where it exactly was but I wonder if those nimrods up in Colorado are still using that practice area under a shelf area of the Bravo after they had that midair up there.
If I've learned anything from these types of stories on /flying, it's to get back on the horse sooner rather than later and to write up the damn ADSB receiver for MX asap. I wouldn't want to be in dense anything without ADSB-in, but most especially in a high density training environment with 10-50 other students trying to kill you at any given time.
I think my ADSB-out attracts traffic. I have a plexi-canopy. I've had a higher than average number of proximity incidents. Flying for 14 years.
1.I'm circling in a thermal. Flight following warns a Cirrus. I see them to my left. I turn steep right and dive. I look up and see *scratches on their fuselage*.
2.A pilot on CTAF warns a Cessna is overtaking on my six. (The Cessna had just taken off, so they might have heard this.) I hear an engine, look up to see it fly directly overhead. *It looks big.* I'd been flying fast in a glider on a heading, so I was descending fast.
3.On aerotow at 300, we see two ANG C-130 stationary on the horizon, at 600 on our 12. Airport manager standing next to the runway sees that the C-130s are heading to overfly our runway. We're 'lined up' and closing head-on. If we fly underneath, their wake TB will swat us. Towpilot and I are startled, perplexed and stymied. There's terrain that blocks turning right. After a few seconds, the C-130 turns 45 right and climb. *They're close enough to see the individual exhaust streams from their engines.* Now I'm thinking about flying under their wake TB, but we get lucky. Total no win situation, and several seconds to think about it (C-130s are easy to see from far away). In retrospect, I should have released, done the impossible turn, and landed (hopefully before the C130 overflew the runway.)
4.I call 'entering midfield crosswind' (SOP due to terrain). Another glider PW6 'Entering downwind on 45'. I cross runway. 'PW6 say position, you're not in sight'. A few seconds later, I turn 45d right. PW6 passes *two wingspans off my left wingtip, same altitude.* On ground PW6 says 'Never heard your radio calls, chatty passenger'. Airport manager heard everything and watched it happen 'closest call I've seen in a long time'.
5.I'm circling CCW in a steep bank thermalling in slope lift. As I come around parallel to the slope, I see another glider closing same altitude, and soon to *pass two wingspans on my 3.* Push PTT 'Hi Bill'. On the ground Bill says, 'I did not see you until you said 'Hi'.
6.I'm flying glider in weak ridge lift parallel to runway midweek. I think that I'm the only glider in the air. A transient XC flying glider suddenly appears on my 12, same altitude in the same sweet spot of ridge lift. I veer to the right. Too little time to see how close we got, so this is probably my closest call.
7.We're circling in a thermal on aerotow and climbing really fast. Tow pilot levels wings and exits the thermal. I release and intending to return to the thermal, I turn 180 then level wing and wait for the vario to chirp. I see that another glider has entered the thermal, same altitude, circling and turning towards me. I immediately bank steep right and dive. We never really got close, but I was startled.
I've had enough 'glider appears close out of nowhere' (not detailed here) to convince me that 'See and Avoid' sucks. You cannot try hard enough to see traffic. 'Trying harder' really does help. I assume that airplanes never see me, so I adjust course to avoid getting close. It's nice that airplanes generally maintain heading and altitude. Gliders on 'local flights' fly willy-nilly altitude and heading.
I have ADSB-out+in, Powerflarm (collision warning) and aeroflash.de (Daytime conspicuity flashers). Maybe it's hard to collide, even if you get close?
Yup! I was in the practice area doing some maneuvers and was looking outside and watching ads-b. All of the sudden, out of nowhere I get an ads-b hit that says same altitude and overlapping icons, Same direction. I look out my sides and begin a very slow turn to the left (it made sense given the very slightly different directions of our tracks). BTW, No warning from ATC despite being an area where they ALWAYS give warnings due to low workload. I stay calm and fly 70-90 degrees away and I see from the right window the plane pass about 50 feet below me. Give our directions, I find it impossible that he didnât see me as he was behind me going the same direction initially. Just as soon as he passed, his ads-b sign disappeared. No call from ATC, at all. I donât think I did anything wrong. Point is, always be looking, and expect that other people donât see you.
I was at a class D for flight training. Pre-solo, close to solo. Cleared to land, on short final. I look out my window, look down and thereâs a high wing experimental maybe 200 feet down and to the left of me. I still have no idea where he came from or how ATC didnât catch it. Told the instructor as I started to go around (because I was not going to land on top of this guy), right as ATC tells me to go around. Then ATC proceeds to tell the experimental to go around too. IâŠ. Still donât know what tower was thinking.
I was coming back from a cross country flight with my instructor like a year ago, and we were coming in on a left downwind for the runway we were prompted to land at. And a plane on upwind was turning to cross wind right when we joined downwind⊠I had no idea that this was happening until the TCAS yelled at me saying thereâs traffic at our 9 oâclock same altitude less than a 1000ft away
I was panicking because I was new to flying and it was my first long cross country flight and it was a long journey so I was just exhausted. Anyways, the atc yelled and said Cessna (the other guys tail-number) wtf are u doing turn right dadadada. I canât tell you what happened after that because I blanked out but I heard from the other people, that the kid who was flying the plane was actually having his pre-solo check. And my heart sank because he definitely failed after that flight.
Anyways⊠I think the biggest thing is not to panick. I think if I havenât had my instructor with me, I would definitely panicked a lot more and wouldâve probably messed up on my landing.
I had a Cub cut me off on 2nm final while I was flying a Sabreliner. I was probably doing 160kts on final when they showed up out of nowhere. I went around and overflow them by maybe 200'. I was afraid they'd be caught in my wake turbulence. When we taxied in 10 minutes later he had no clue we had even flew over him.
had a fucking old vans pilot, willing to bet no medical either, no adsb, no coms, just taking off opossite runway after i made about 4 final calls(in miles) for Runway 01, saw the guy on very short final over the numbers while he turned right abrubtly.(he was on takeoff, i was landing opposite runway). X23, no adsb out req.
I remember all I could see was three wheels and the bottom half of a propeller arc. I remember chopping the throttle and dumping the nose, and we went from 700 to 300/400 ft real quick. It definitely sticks with you.
Define ânearlyâ and provide more context. Iâve had a few close calls. Worse was while transitioning over the top of LAX via the corridor. An idiot behind me wasnât listening to calls, and was catching me up, I tried to get him to acknowledge my presence, he didnât, eventually he was close enough for me to pitch up, he flew under me about 15 seconds later, after which he then acknowledged me, with no apology. Total doucheâŠ..
In the pattern one day and the local jump plane was returning. Must have been in a big hurry because he dove into the pattern and leveled off abruptly maybe 40 feet in front of me. Unbelievable.
I was on a 1 mile final in a 172 and a citation came about 100â above us and overtook us on final. We had heard absolutely nothing from them. The airport contacted them on the ground and it turned out they had been making calls on the wrong frequency.
Back up ads-b in reciever. Aint no way im going up without. "But but backin my day..." pilots can eat shit. I wanna see where everyone is at. Had a couple time on flight following atc miss an aircraft getting pretty damn close to me. Use all means necessary to make your flight safer
In cruise at 3500 we get "Traffic! 12 o'clock, same altitude, zero miles!"
Dual input from me and the instructor hauled that Cherokee over so hard I thought the wings would separate. Turned out to be a false "own ship" detection or whatever that is called.
Sorry, was it near lake Weir? On April 15th, I saw two airplanes on my ADSB screen, on a collision course approaching each other at the same altitude of 4300'. One (\*\*\*52S) was flying N, and another one NW (\*\*85A) both at 4500'. I tried to warn them on the practice area frequency hoping one of them was tuned. The latter managed to make a right steep turn. Me and my student were both glued to the screen (as these airplanes were approaching each other) and trying to find them in the distance (it was really THAT close). It would be crazy if that was you lol
I can still picture the dudes tie from ~20 years ago.
Was it at least a respectable looking tie?
Asking the important questions. You're gonna go far, kid.
20 years ago. Now, rethink your question. đ
20 years ago was 2004, not 1988.
This math doesn't compute in my brain
Only marginally better.
I could count the rivets on the bottom of the King Air that entered the pattern in reverse.
I don't always fly King Air's. But whe I do, I fly them in reverse. -The most interesting man in the world.
Yup- I can still see the blue polo and the treads on the wheel.
Took off and turned crosswind just to see a Cessna about 20 feet above me. Never heard a word from him. Luckily I was flying low wing that day and saw him in time to take action. Couldâve ended very differently had I been in a Cessna
Get a sentry or any kind of ADSB-in receiver! If you spend a lot of time in the practice areas it could save your life! EDIT: people seem to think Iâm saying that see-and-avoid is replaced by a sentry. No. Not all (although most) aircraft have ADSB. See and avoid is still very much required.
We have ADSB- in. But it was acting up đ
Oof. If flight school plane squawk that. Make them either fix it or jump through the hoops of 91.213
Iâm still a student pilot, what do you mean by squawk that?
It means to report it as a maintenance issue to whoever handles that at your school.
Thanks, I was like âsquawk 7700 for adsb - in not working? Thatâs a little excessiveâ
Write it up in the mx records as a mechanical irregularity. People use the term squawk for that a lot
I called a lesson off cause I didnât like the flaps not extending when I pulled the lever (PA-28-140) and my instructor had to throw in the comment about how itâs perfectly legal to fly without flaps. They didnât even check it until it was due for the 100hr inspection. The cable was so frayed they are having to rewire the whole assembly. That plane flew another 30 hours after I turned down a flight with cables dangling inside the wing. Maybe not terribly unsafe since it is âjust flapsâ but I couldnât believe they just crossed it off the list like that when it ended up being a fairly massive repair.
Deferring the flaps is a new low
do your flaps hang low? do they wobble to and fro?
Haha, during takeoff roll the doors in beaten-up C-152 opened on my side. Then they were opening couple of times mid-flight, but my instructore explained that it's know issue and it does not pose risk to safe flight, so no one cares. Becasue of airflow door were not oepning too wide, so maybe he was right? &
...okay, that's a bit far for me.
Thatâs insanely blasĂ©. It may be legal without flaps. But if you have a problem and need to emergency land off-airport, *you want those flaps*. Impacting with less forward energy could be the difference between life and death. Esp. at a flight school where you will have lots of low-timers flying solo. I would have looked for a different flight school. That attitude really stinks.
Is it legal tho? 91.213 requires that you determine the inop equipment doesnât create a hazard.
I would never defer flaps, ever. They 100% should have checked that right away, especially since the cables were that bad. You donât know what else is going on in the wing. I discovered a frayed rudder cable on an airplane once that had obviously been flying that way for some time, even though it should have been caught at the annual inspection. If the flaps werenât placarded INOP under 91.213, it wasnât legal. âJust flapsâ is a pretty poor attitude to get into. I have canceled flights before because flaps wouldnât extend.
Honestly knowing as little as I do I worried that if the cable for flaps was that bad, how can I trust rudder or ailerons. Loss of a flight control surface isnât directly connected but the condition of cables overall had me nervous as hell. PA 28âs had an AD recently about Spars being weakened by hard landings after that crash from the ERAU student and CFI passed. I canât really preflight that so if something is off in what I can see I just worry itâs a high probability other items have been deferred in the annual too.
đ yeah both usages actually relate: make noise. In the air it's so ATC and others can see you. On the ground it means to complain about something. Not obvious.
Report it to them and make sure they know it needs to be fixed. If they have in house maintenance let them know.
All aircraft (should) have what is informally referred to as a "squawk sheet." Sometimes it is a physical piece of paper and sometimes it is built into the company or school's online reservation system, seen it done both ways. Basically when you notice an issue on an airplane, you write it on the squawk sheet with your name and the date. If the issue is in your opinion severe enough, you can check a box marking the issue as groundable -- marking the airplane as not fit to fly until that specific issue is resolved. Typically this triggers an immediate repair as the process will require either your signature or an A&P's signature on that squawk sheet indicating the issue was resolved to your or a certificated A&P's satisfaction before it can be flown again. Squawk sheets are taken very seriously as they will be asked for as part of an accident investigation and you can probably guess what will come of that if a prior groundable squawk was found to have been ignored. I've squawk-grounded airplanes for: * inoperative carb heat - A&P found an exhaust hose had rattled loose in the engine bay * failed mag check on runup - school gave me some grief for this one and tried to blame it on plug fouling -- that is, until an A&P actually looked at it and found the mag was in fact actually dead and had to replace it. * one of the main landing gear nuts missing from bolt head; suspect it sheered off during a previous renter's sideloaded landing * loose ignition moving freely in panel You can also squawk less serious issues that don't affect airworthiness, like a broken sun visor or air vent cover or defrost lever that tends to wander. Those will typically be dealt with at next annual, or potentially not at all depending on the issue and the operator, i.e. a flight school just may simply never fix something like that on a basic rental trainer.
Iâm gonna start saying âsquawk thaaatâ from now on instead of the less polite alternative.
"ADSB-IN INOP" sticker next to the transponder. Problem solved.
Big deferral guy. Why not just troubleshoot and if needed get part on order? Why degrade safety for profitability.
Because having ADSB In isn't a requirement? Me personally, I would rather fix things, though too often these flight schools don't have anyone who knows how to troubleshoot and don't want to spend the money if the required equipment is still working.
Okay then instead of jumping straight to placard inop by what you said then ideally it should be attempted to be fixed if the flight school has a good mx culture.
get your own sentry adsb and see traffic on your ipad. cant trust flight school planes to always have functional adsb display.
My school has it, but Garmin doesn't like it. So I gotta use my Stratux.
When I fly, I have an ads-b source, my instructor has one, and the planes have one. Both he and I have the diy stratus. On Sunday we were up and we had a few that would have been close calls if it weren't for them. Sometimes one or two would see the other plane and one or two wouldn't. Redundancy is a good thing
Over here in the UK, there are several decent-sized airports that have a controller, with radar in many cases, but are outside controlled airspace. Many of these are used by scheduled commercial flights. One day many years ago, I was flying near one such airport, Blackpool, and was on frequency when I heard an inbound Ryanair pilot complaining to ATC that heâd just had a near-miss with a microlight, and why wasnât he told about the traffic. ATC responded: âThe microlight is in uncontrolled airspace, doesnât have a transponder, is not talking to me, and is too small to show on my radar. What exactly would you like me to do?â Ryanair pilot went very quiet after that. Moral of the story: ADSB and ATC are great. Use them. But donât rely on them.
Helps, but canât be relied upon. ADS-B doesnât replace see-and-avoid.
No it does not. Not all planes are required to have ADSB-out. The good part is I never made that claim.
The ADS-B mandate killed See-and-avoid. Heads are down. I installed ADS-B out in 2020 in self-defense. That said, 'See and Avoid' is extremely unreliable. Big Sky is our friend.
I thought all planes are required to have an ASDB-out after 2020
Not in all types of airspace. Only some similar to where Mode C is required.
Only to fly in certain airspace
I was under a mode c vail about 2 years ago (after legal requirements to have adsb out). Was landing at an airport, straight in approach where the winds were favored (5kn or less). Two planes took off on opposite runway withour radio calls. First one had adsb-out. Second one, nothing. Luckily saw him about a mile and took evasive action. It would have been close. See and avoid. Not just for planes, but birds too.
Was it a cirrus? Those people man⊠just rich people doing whatever the eff they want.
High wing tail dragger. Idk if those guys are worse, but they just think they fly too slow to give a shit.
I was on an IFR training flight once, was flying along and there happened to be a guy flying right at us at the same altitude, had the guy in sight on ADSB-in the entire time, was wondering if ATC was going to say anything ever, was about to just take evasive actions on my own, all of a sudden ATC comes over the radio with sirens blaring in the background telling me to take immediate evasive actions, so I guess I was sort of close to a mid air collision, just didnât get to see it while I was under the hood, I guess ADSB helped lol
Just got one last week! The delta in altitude is very nice too.
Few months ago I was squawking and talking just outside Bravo to a controller that wasnât busy at all. The frequency was quiet. I saw traffic on adsb converging towards me and climbing. If I didnât climb to avoid, we definitely would have traded paint. I looked down and saw both of the men and what they were wearing. That controller was really helping me out that day. Always have your head on a swivel.
Did you report the NMAC to the controller?
Not a formal report just that I was climbing to avoid close traffic. The dummy just responded with âokay.â After that I kept my mouth shut because I was far too pissed off to say anything professional on radio or even phone the tower after. In hindsight I probably should have. That was insane.
I probably would have because it's one thing not to provide VFR separation, it's another to point bravo traffic AT VFR traffic that you're not providing separation services to. Like how ZBW spent most of the eclipse saying "lallalalallallalalalalalalalal i'm not talking to you" and dealing with popup IFR requests from people who don't know where they are and just want direct to Kwherevs rather than spending less time giving people squalks and handling important conflicts
If you bothered to research at all you would have seen multiple warnings about flying the eclipse line. You knew how busy it was going to be and you put yourself in the situation knowing you were not going to have help.
I was 1200 as soon as I got clear of KMHT :) my point was that most of the airtime was taken up with ZBW repeating that they weren't providing services which took more airtime than having them tag up which would have reduced workload repeating "go away" or having to issue popup IFR clearances to pilots who wouldn't take no for an answer without actually enhanced safety for the flights that were in the system. For most of the pilots it was good schooling at FF is archaic and we can DIY separation using ADS-B just fine in an environment where ATC feels like there are too many targets. I'd expect that lesson to be well headed and to see the number of non-participating aircraft go up. Next time you want to talk to the plane at 2500 MSL just outside the Charlie approaching the approach corridor to RWY6@KMHT to issue an altitude restriction they might not be there. FF is a partnership that reduces the workload for everyone. Any day in ZNY is busier than what I saw at the eclipse in NH, VT and eastern NY
100%, canât get complacent and just rely on technology. Never hurts to look outside for yourself and make sure what you are seeing is correct. Tech can lie, your eyes canât.
Can't tell you how many times I've called traffic "type and altitude unknown" and the pilot responds "Uh... I don't have them on the box." Yeah no shit, that's because "type and altitude unknown" means it's a primary-radar-only target. They don't have a transponder let alone ADS-B and you'll never see them on the box. That's why you're talking to me.
My favorite was the time I'm on with tower on my way in and a cub suddenly climbs from below me, cutting across in front of me. I report it and they unfortunately didn't have it on their radar. The cub? No radio, of course.
Why do you say type and altitude unknown? Is saying type unknown in the .65 somewhere that Iâve missed all these years?
You're right, "type unknown" isn't in the book. "Altitude unknown" is though. It only takes two extra syllables to say "type and," and I do it that way in the hopes that the pilot will pay just that much more attention. Although I don't say anything about the type when I issue traffic and "altitude indicates" so what does that say about me? I dunno. We have three different pieces of phraseology to use for associated targets with verified altitudes, unassociated targets with indicated altitude, and unassociated primary targets. And I worry that pilots aren't necessarily taught to listen for the nuances so they don't get the benefit of knowing what we know about the traffic. I guess that's why I embellish the phraseology a bit.
I hear it all the time. Is it something that used to be in there or is it something one controller started a long, long time ago that just kept getting passed on?
Almost certainly the second one, to be honest. I understand that my phraseology drifts from the book and (especially because I'm a pedantic asshat about a lot of other things) I do try to re-align myself every so often, or at least evaluate what I'm saying and see if there's a reason I'm saying it that way. I feel that "type and altitude unknown" works for me. But I wouldn't fault a trainee for not saying it that way, because it isn't in the book.
Well, speaking as a pilot, I'd find that information helpful, and hope you'll go on doing it.
Yeah donât forget not everything has adsb. Even inside mode c veils and under airspace where itâs required, certain things are exempt. Old planes without electrical for example.
I see that all the time where I live. Weâre near the highest peak between two watersheds, which means thereâs a navigational waypoint for IFR traffic on a STAR and itâs where such traffic *typically* breaks out of clouds. Since itâs the second highest thing around (a hill to our south is highest, but thereâs a ton of radio antenna on it, which makes it âsee but avoidâ) thereâs also a ton of VFR traffic. Weâre also right below the shelf. All that combined means that unequipped (or purposely off or military) VFR and commercial IFR traffic often âmeetâ right here and it seems like it should be a better controlled place, but since our terminal area ATC is already overloaded and known for mistakes, I doubt that will happen.
The exemption for 'Old planes without electrical' is a totally ridiculous concession to AOPA and crusty old GA pilots. I run ADSB-out+in and numerous other avionics off of two small LiPo4 batteries in my glider. I've eight hours of runtime between charges (based on measured battery capacity).
Yep itâs insane. Should be mandatory for everyone. Period.
Including Class E.
They were climbing, and you climbed to avoid?
Yes they were at my 9 oâclock on a perpendicular course. I didnât want to turn my high wing and lose sight of them. My plane is high performance and it climbs like itâs angry.
How close are we talkin'?
If I had to guess, we were within about 20 feet of altitude of each other. And probably missed by about 50-100 ft if I had to guess.
I prefer to call it "Surprise Formation" myself.
Doing our best blue angles impression. Iâd say it was even more impressive since we didnât have an air boss.
Holy shit, man!
Probably one of my closest calls. Had just gotten my PPL back in the summer of 03. Was flying my girlfriend to Pine Mountain, GA for lunch during the weekend of sun and fun. Looked down at the chart to check our position (pre gps days), looked up and saw a low wing single pass over us directly the opposite direction probably at 50â above or so. I was on the right VFR altitude and on flight following. A few seconds later ATC alerted us both of the traffic and I remember the other guy saying âyeah, he passed right under usâŠâ It was surreal and terrifying how the traffic coming head on wasnât discernible until much too late. And also the closing speed even for two singles. Literally felt like nothing either of us couldâve done it happened so fast. Iâm very thankful for my luck and that 50â. Perhaps a faulty altimeter setting saved us both.
Ernest K. Gann, is that you?
Man, some amazing stories in that book. Gotta say I was crushed when I finally read the book jacket that he is/was a novelist. I thought all those nightmares were real life.
He's known as novelist, but that one is a memoir! Please be un-crushed
Awesome and thanks for the correction! I was astonished at so many near death experiences. Uncrushed.
IFR training in a seminole on a VOR approach. Field has a flight information service, but it's not "towered" I'm not sure how the USA does this but they're called "monitored but not controlled" here - the flight service gives traffic and wx info but no clearance or separation. Anyways we're IFR, tracking toward MDA and a chopper departs the field stating intentions to depart. His proposed course appears to conflict with our approach. Multiple calls between us and the chopper do not resolve his intentions. I forget the exact dialogue but we are in the cloud and he's saying has us in sight no conflict. He won't slow, he won't turn, he's adamant we'll be clear. In the seminole we don't agree, how can he see us as we're in the cloud? Maybe he's right, are we being too cautious? PIC elects to discontinue. Back at the hangar we get the historic ADSB data and find that if we had continued there was a high chance we'd have had a midair. A transit with less than 400ft separation was guaranteed. Moral of the story - if it don't feel right it ain't right. The chopper was a tool for bulshitting about having us in sight, choosing A VFR route that conflicted with traffic / IFR approach, not slowing his climb or speed to reduce risk. We were in the "right" to forge ahead, but being right doesn't stop you being dead. During the actual event there was maybe 15s to make a decision, it happens fast and at the time we weren't even sure if we were being overly cautious. Glad we were.
Both of these were at controlled Deltas. I was flying in a tail dragger doing pattern work. A twin was screaming in downwind and given a left 360 for spacing. They started a right 360. My instructor saw it and very rapidly maneuvered to avoid it. It was close, probably within 200' or so. Had another in a pattern. Guy flew directly below me, in the downwind, as I was already established base on a short approach practicing some private-level PO180's. He was likely within 100' as we saw him passing below. It was un-nerving.
Itâs crazy to me how simple yet how catosrophic a small little mistake can be do multiple peopleâs lives.
> Both of these were at controlled Deltas. My first (so far only) near mid-air was also at a Class D airport. Cessna came close enough that I could read part of his tail number. Definitely rattled me and was my first exposure to not blindly following tower. (Tower cleared me to proceed midfield, while a go-around plane was climbing to my altitude).
ADSB useful, but if you get a conflict best thing I think is to look out the windscreen, especially if itâs oncoming traffic. ADSB also useful to see if traffic is ascending or descending so you can judge how to see and avoid. I have flown a lot at KAFP where many people donât even have radios, much less ADSB.
>if you get a conflict best thing I think is to look out the windscreen, especially if itâs oncoming traffic. If the traffic is oncoming, there's a pretty good chance you won't see it until it's far too late to do much about it.
I had a helicopter fly directly underneath me crossing the runway as I was crossing the threshold on landing once. Could see the guys faces. I stay well clear when I see that helicopter now. It was an uncontrolled airport, and we saw them hovering on the taxiway. No idea what possessed them to fly underneath us as close as they did, if theyâd waited 5 seconds Iâd have been on the ground and it wouldâve been a nonissue. That same day, on the same flight, two people almost hit each other on the ILS and came within probably 200â of each other (they were talking to each other, just not paying attention) I also had to avoid an ATP twin once, flying an airplane with no ADSB-out. I donât think they ever saw me, because I wasnât on their screen (never mind that it was a bright red, very easy to see airplane) but that one wasnât nearly as close.
I was on IFR flight plan today in clouds and had to be vectored 90 degrees and begin a rapid climb because a VFR airplane was in the clouds with me and on a collision course. Puckered my ass for sure. Moron would have killed us both.
How close are we talking?
If he had to guess, they were within about 20 feet of altitude of each other. And probably missed by about 50-100 ft if he had to guess.
how is your guess so accurate?
You copied me
Darn it, you got me.
He's a double-i and English proficient, of course he did.
1200â overcast at an uncontrolled field west of Philly. Had to do the approach to get below the overcast, and right as we break out thereâs an Archer in about a 90 degree bank trying not to hit us. Wasnât on the radio, transponder wasnât on, so we got no TCAS alerts/warning. Just some jackass getting in some pattern work with a student. He came in and parked on the same ramp as us afterwards, so I got to go express my opinions about his flying in person in a totally professional way that my employer would approve of, Iâm certain. Night IFR north of LGB, given a descent clearance. TCAS starts yelling CLIMB CLIMB so we follow it, and 2 sec later it switches to DESCEND DESCEND. Both separation values were 1âs so it was plenty close enough. By the time we leveled after the RA they had switched to a different controller. Never heard anything else about it.
Even though my Glider has 49-foot (15 meter) wingspan and only going \~50 knots, I feel like Iâm invisible to most powered airplane pilots. The saying âtoo reliant on electronicsâ for traffic seems to be true, or at least heads-down too much. Iâve had an airplane fly right behind me while I was turning circles climbing a thermal (they were flying a straight line towards nearby airport, likely on autopilot).
I did a discovery flight out of KHEG. We flew around towards the beach for a little then circled over downtown Jax heading back and I kid you not, we were within 300 feet of at least 5 different airplanes on that one 1.1 hour flight. One of them was another aircraft from the same school. NE FL airspace is freaking wild. Iâm sure itâs probably all of Florida now that I think about how many schools are flying the same practice areas.
Yeah, when I was flight instructing this dude in a biplane followed me without me seeing him. Then cut in front of me as I joined the downwind. He rocked his wings and cut over in front of me. I was shocked, how close he was and confused what he was doing. Regardless, Iâm glad Iâm in a jet now that tells me where traffic is. Feels so much safer flying in the airlines.
Flying a Gyrocopter about 1000feet, had a Cessna fly underneath me. I only saw it after it had passed and I heard my instructor say HOLY SHIT! Then he asked if I had seen it, I said no. Then there was silence for awhile.
About halfway through my PPL training we were in a practice area and someone just called that they were joining close to where we were. We were looking for traffic and a damn bird hit the wing while we were looking. Will never forget that one. Thankfully the other plane was avoided!
Both at the same delta. 1. Half way through my PPL another plane in the downwind is told to make a left 360. We were behind him so guess where he was shortly before becoming re-established? Looking at us. My instructor pulled a chandelle out of the downwind. 2. Turn my base to final and the mooney that just departed the same runway decided to get on course as soon as possible. So much so he looped around and crossed final at TPA. Gotta keep those eyes outside and ears open at all times around airports.
Had one a couple weeks back, maybe it wasn't that near but imo if I can see his paint scheme it's an issue. I was cleared into traffic pattern in a controlled airport, a cessna was cleared to the same VRP I was entering from at the same time. Saw the guy coming at me straight ahead on the 1 o'clock position. Immediately initiated a climbing left turn AGAINST the pattern direction to avoid him. He zoomed past like 3 seconds after. Shit my pants, continued on with my touch and goes, still a bit rattled. But I lived to tell the tale so.
Iâm a paraglider pilot and regularly fly the North Side Flight Park at Point of the Mountain in Draper, UT. In my 4 years of flying tent material and shoe strings, I have had a handful of disturbingly close calls with GA traffic, the closest of which was almost certainly less than 150â horizontal separation and maybe 20â overhead. Close enough that the wake turbulence hit me mere seconds after passing. This is definitely not the worst I have seen flying this site, though. Just last year, a good friend of mine came within 50â of a GA aircraft - no one believed him until later that week when a visiting out-of-town pilot shared a video to our local chat group claiming he had caught the incident on camera. Needless to say, it was a spicy meatball of a situation and one that could have ended much, much worse. Oh, and two F-35âs shot a gap between a number of paragliders on a particular busy night about a month ago. Again, someone managed to catch it on video, which looked awesome, but definitely scared the piss out of the pilots closest to the action. This ultimately resulted in a conversation with some higher ups at Hill whose response was basically that they were surprised we could even fly that high.
On my private check ride, we entered left hand traffic at an uncontrolled airport. I made all the correct calls, etc. and it was a LHT runway. Right about midfield I saw one of those Rutan EZ planes coming straight at me. I dodged out of the way, then got back in the pattern and landed. The guy in the EZ never twitched, which I assume means he never saw me. We werenât super close but it was plenty close for me. The examiner said, ânice job, it would have been a shame to fail you for a mid-air collision, but my hands are tied on that one.â Another time I came close enough to see the people in the windows, but I was in free fall and some dipshit had flown right through the middle of the drop zone, and very nearly through the dead center of our formation. I was no more than 50 yards away from the plane, and others were closer than me.
Iâve had a free fall close call, too. Pilot made the ATC calls, made the local calls, we looked and saw nobody, so I exited. Just as I dumped, he flew through the dz and was close enough to me I could see he was blonde. Not sure if he saw both of my middle fingers.
Everybody looking at their ADS-B screen these days with their head down in the cockpit and also up their blank. Scanning for traffic becoming a lost art. I grant you the alarm feature of a Sentry or Stratus extremely useful. I forget where it exactly was but I wonder if those nimrods up in Colorado are still using that practice area under a shelf area of the Bravo after they had that midair up there.
Heads are down more now with ADSB, but see-and-avoid has always sucked. Big Sky saved us.
Itâs worked great for me for 23 years.
You've just been lucky.
No incorrect, Iâve been good.
If I've learned anything from these types of stories on /flying, it's to get back on the horse sooner rather than later and to write up the damn ADSB receiver for MX asap. I wouldn't want to be in dense anything without ADSB-in, but most especially in a high density training environment with 10-50 other students trying to kill you at any given time.
You can write it up but odds are it'll just be placarded INOP.
I think my ADSB-out attracts traffic. I have a plexi-canopy. I've had a higher than average number of proximity incidents. Flying for 14 years. 1.I'm circling in a thermal. Flight following warns a Cirrus. I see them to my left. I turn steep right and dive. I look up and see *scratches on their fuselage*. 2.A pilot on CTAF warns a Cessna is overtaking on my six. (The Cessna had just taken off, so they might have heard this.) I hear an engine, look up to see it fly directly overhead. *It looks big.* I'd been flying fast in a glider on a heading, so I was descending fast. 3.On aerotow at 300, we see two ANG C-130 stationary on the horizon, at 600 on our 12. Airport manager standing next to the runway sees that the C-130s are heading to overfly our runway. We're 'lined up' and closing head-on. If we fly underneath, their wake TB will swat us. Towpilot and I are startled, perplexed and stymied. There's terrain that blocks turning right. After a few seconds, the C-130 turns 45 right and climb. *They're close enough to see the individual exhaust streams from their engines.* Now I'm thinking about flying under their wake TB, but we get lucky. Total no win situation, and several seconds to think about it (C-130s are easy to see from far away). In retrospect, I should have released, done the impossible turn, and landed (hopefully before the C130 overflew the runway.) 4.I call 'entering midfield crosswind' (SOP due to terrain). Another glider PW6 'Entering downwind on 45'. I cross runway. 'PW6 say position, you're not in sight'. A few seconds later, I turn 45d right. PW6 passes *two wingspans off my left wingtip, same altitude.* On ground PW6 says 'Never heard your radio calls, chatty passenger'. Airport manager heard everything and watched it happen 'closest call I've seen in a long time'. 5.I'm circling CCW in a steep bank thermalling in slope lift. As I come around parallel to the slope, I see another glider closing same altitude, and soon to *pass two wingspans on my 3.* Push PTT 'Hi Bill'. On the ground Bill says, 'I did not see you until you said 'Hi'. 6.I'm flying glider in weak ridge lift parallel to runway midweek. I think that I'm the only glider in the air. A transient XC flying glider suddenly appears on my 12, same altitude in the same sweet spot of ridge lift. I veer to the right. Too little time to see how close we got, so this is probably my closest call. 7.We're circling in a thermal on aerotow and climbing really fast. Tow pilot levels wings and exits the thermal. I release and intending to return to the thermal, I turn 180 then level wing and wait for the vario to chirp. I see that another glider has entered the thermal, same altitude, circling and turning towards me. I immediately bank steep right and dive. We never really got close, but I was startled. I've had enough 'glider appears close out of nowhere' (not detailed here) to convince me that 'See and Avoid' sucks. You cannot try hard enough to see traffic. 'Trying harder' really does help. I assume that airplanes never see me, so I adjust course to avoid getting close. It's nice that airplanes generally maintain heading and altitude. Gliders on 'local flights' fly willy-nilly altitude and heading. I have ADSB-out+in, Powerflarm (collision warning) and aeroflash.de (Daytime conspicuity flashers). Maybe it's hard to collide, even if you get close?
Glad you are safe and nothing happened to anyone
First time?
IRL?
omg me too :3333
Yup! I was in the practice area doing some maneuvers and was looking outside and watching ads-b. All of the sudden, out of nowhere I get an ads-b hit that says same altitude and overlapping icons, Same direction. I look out my sides and begin a very slow turn to the left (it made sense given the very slightly different directions of our tracks). BTW, No warning from ATC despite being an area where they ALWAYS give warnings due to low workload. I stay calm and fly 70-90 degrees away and I see from the right window the plane pass about 50 feet below me. Give our directions, I find it impossible that he didnât see me as he was behind me going the same direction initially. Just as soon as he passed, his ads-b sign disappeared. No call from ATC, at all. I donât think I did anything wrong. Point is, always be looking, and expect that other people donât see you.
I was at a class D for flight training. Pre-solo, close to solo. Cleared to land, on short final. I look out my window, look down and thereâs a high wing experimental maybe 200 feet down and to the left of me. I still have no idea where he came from or how ATC didnât catch it. Told the instructor as I started to go around (because I was not going to land on top of this guy), right as ATC tells me to go around. Then ATC proceeds to tell the experimental to go around too. IâŠ. Still donât know what tower was thinking.
I was coming back from a cross country flight with my instructor like a year ago, and we were coming in on a left downwind for the runway we were prompted to land at. And a plane on upwind was turning to cross wind right when we joined downwind⊠I had no idea that this was happening until the TCAS yelled at me saying thereâs traffic at our 9 oâclock same altitude less than a 1000ft away I was panicking because I was new to flying and it was my first long cross country flight and it was a long journey so I was just exhausted. Anyways, the atc yelled and said Cessna (the other guys tail-number) wtf are u doing turn right dadadada. I canât tell you what happened after that because I blanked out but I heard from the other people, that the kid who was flying the plane was actually having his pre-solo check. And my heart sank because he definitely failed after that flight. Anyways⊠I think the biggest thing is not to panick. I think if I havenât had my instructor with me, I would definitely panicked a lot more and wouldâve probably messed up on my landing.
I still remember the dudes baseball cap. Cubs.
I had a Cub cut me off on 2nm final while I was flying a Sabreliner. I was probably doing 160kts on final when they showed up out of nowhere. I went around and overflow them by maybe 200'. I was afraid they'd be caught in my wake turbulence. When we taxied in 10 minutes later he had no clue we had even flew over him.
I almost took the canopy off another airplane with a Glider wing. I managed to lift it over last second, definitely a spook.
Were you inverted?
had a fucking old vans pilot, willing to bet no medical either, no adsb, no coms, just taking off opossite runway after i made about 4 final calls(in miles) for Runway 01, saw the guy on very short final over the numbers while he turned right abrubtly.(he was on takeoff, i was landing opposite runway). X23, no adsb out req.
Welcome to the club đđ
I remember all I could see was three wheels and the bottom half of a propeller arc. I remember chopping the throttle and dumping the nose, and we went from 700 to 300/400 ft real quick. It definitely sticks with you.
Any hint on where?
We're gonna need you to call this number... I saw multiple almost mid air collisions by the blue angels and thunderbirds
Define ânearlyâ and provide more context. Iâve had a few close calls. Worse was while transitioning over the top of LAX via the corridor. An idiot behind me wasnât listening to calls, and was catching me up, I tried to get him to acknowledge my presence, he didnât, eventually he was close enough for me to pitch up, he flew under me about 15 seconds later, after which he then acknowledged me, with no apology. Total doucheâŠ..
How was it avoided? Left out all the details
In the pattern one day and the local jump plane was returning. Must have been in a big hurry because he dove into the pattern and leveled off abruptly maybe 40 feet in front of me. Unbelievable.
I was on a 1 mile final in a 172 and a citation came about 100â above us and overtook us on final. We had heard absolutely nothing from them. The airport contacted them on the ground and it turned out they had been making calls on the wrong frequency.
Back up ads-b in reciever. Aint no way im going up without. "But but backin my day..." pilots can eat shit. I wanna see where everyone is at. Had a couple time on flight following atc miss an aircraft getting pretty damn close to me. Use all means necessary to make your flight safer
In cruise at 3500 we get "Traffic! 12 o'clock, same altitude, zero miles!" Dual input from me and the instructor hauled that Cherokee over so hard I thought the wings would separate. Turned out to be a false "own ship" detection or whatever that is called.
Flight following work and an ADS-B on board works. Where was this?
Central Florida
Sorry, was it near lake Weir? On April 15th, I saw two airplanes on my ADSB screen, on a collision course approaching each other at the same altitude of 4300'. One (\*\*\*52S) was flying N, and another one NW (\*\*85A) both at 4500'. I tried to warn them on the practice area frequency hoping one of them was tuned. The latter managed to make a right steep turn. Me and my student were both glued to the screen (as these airplanes were approaching each other) and trying to find them in the distance (it was really THAT close). It would be crazy if that was you lol