While it will be many months before we know the cause of the

horrific mid-air collision last week at Brown Field, it's always a good time to review some traffic avoidance basics. I covered many of these items in an article I wrote over 4-years ago, The [Original] Glass Panel, but here’s a quick review, in light of this recent tragedy.

SEE AND AVOID

First, remember that pilots are responsible for collision avoidance in visual conditions, even if you're on an IFR flight plan (FAR 91.113b). A common misconception is that the tower controller is somehow responsible for traffic avoidance in his control area. Controllers will often point out traffic to you, but that is merely a gesture they provide on a workload-permitting basis (when they're not too busy), and not a requirement. Their primary responsibility is to play traffic cop for those big slabs of concrete known as runways, not for airborne traffic. Same for VFR Flight Following (SoCal, etc.) and IFR flights in VMC --- it is the pilot that is responsible for maintaining collision avoidance with other airplanes (and terrain); not the controller.

TIS-B and ADS-B traffic are wonderful things, but it's not going to help you much in and around an airport. Most traffic in the pattern is masked on radar (at Gillespie, you don't show up below about 1,100' MSL; at Ramona they don't see you below 3,400' MSL). If that means you're not showing up on their radar, it also means you won't see them on your on-board whiz-bang traffic system (except if you have ADS-B, you will see other ADS-B/Out traffic). And in the traffic pattern, you should be looking out the windows of your airplane, not looking at a TV screen on your panel, anyway. This situation is even worse outside the Mode-C veil. I have ADS-B in the Skylane, and I never see traffic at French Valley or Hemet while I'm in the pattern or overflying those airports.

THE EYES HAVE IT

The only way to see traffic is by looking for it. That sounds like something Yogi Berra might say, but it's the truth, and it's the

reason that you must visually see actual airplane traffic with your own eyes (not relying on a passenger or avionics) when you tell ATC you have “traffic in sight” that they have called out to you. Saying something like “we have 'em on the fishfinder...” may make you feel like Joe Pilot, but it's not an acceptable response to ATC pointing out traffic and makes you sound silly (at least to me). The only two acceptable responses to traffic being pointed out to you are either “Negative contact”, or “Traffic in sight” (see the Pilot/Controllers Glossary for more). In addition, if you had previously-called traffic in sight, but then lost sight of them, you must tell the controller that.

While you can see in about a 200° arc (peripheral vision), only a very small center area of the eye (called the fovea) has the ability to send clear, sharply focused messages to the brain. As you can only focus on this narrow viewing area, effective scanning is accomplished with a series of short, regularly spaced eye

movements that bring successive areas of the sky into the central visual field. You can start looking anywhere, but most pilots begin a left-to-right visual sweep, stopping in short 10° segments for at least a second to focus in that area. Airplanes are most visible when they are moving from side-to-side, rather than directly toward or away from you. They are also more likely to be visible when they are turning as light will then begin to reflect off parts of the airplane like the wing. That's also why it's easier to see an airplane that is higher than you (against the backdrop of the sky), rather than an airplane lower than you, which tends to blend in to the background of the terrain. At non-towered airports, I teach to make the radio call on each leg as you begin the turn, when you'll be more visible to another pilot in the area, looking for you when they hear your radio call (“White Cessna, wing-up left base...”).

Don't forget to look behind you; especially as you approach VFR Reporting Points (Lakeside, Cottonwood, Alpine, etc.), and while you’re entering, departing or in the traffic pattern. I was at SAA nearly 10-years ago when we lost a very talented CFI and student when they departed Gillespie in a 172 and got run over from behind by a faster 182 departing the parallel runway (who also happened to not have his transponder turned on, which sealed their fate as he completed another link in the accident chain). When climbing out, lower your nose from time to time and look for other traffic that you might otherwise be climbing into, such as me flying my Cub; also known as “the-slowest-thing-in-the-air”.

While cruise-climbing to altitude for a cross-country flight, in addition to dropping the nose periodically throughout the climb, gently bank left and right to produce mini- clearing turns. Be extra vigilant crossing over VOR's, VFR waypoints and when making long straight-in approaches to airports. There is almost always an Instrument approach --- pretty much straight in to one or more runways at most airports --- so there may be pilots or Instrument students practicing that approach, or flying it for real, and I guarantee you they are not looking outside for other traffic when they're working hard to keep ILS or RNAV needles centered in their airplane.

CLEARING TURNS!!!

For students or pilots training and practicing maneuvers, you must do clearing turns every couple of minutes. I think that other than repeating “right rudder” a thousand times, this is the thing I always have to remind students. I don't know if they think that it's not necessary or some task that the FAA has added to check ride maneuvers just to make them more complex, but I rarely find a student that will do clearing turns before every other maneuver without being coached to do so. In the flight maneuver videos I've produced, I generally edit out things like clearing turns, radio calls, sweep checks and the fact that I am always over an airport or other emergency landing area, but you must know that I do them all the time; you're just not seeing that in the completed video, so perhaps that important part of the maneuver doesn't sink in.

X-RAY VISION

You don't have it; so you'll have to move --- either your head or the airplane --- so that you can see around barriers such as door

posts, wing spars or the wing itself. Remember the huge blind spot high wing aircraft have above them, and the blind spot low wing aircraft have below them. There has been more than one incident of a high-wing and a low-wing aircraft getting together because they both couldn't see each other through their blind spots. Raise a high-wing or lower a low-wing before initiating a turn in either. When taxiing taildraggers, we make gentle S-turns on the taxiway to see what the airplane is blocking from our view.

Don't use polarized sunglasses as they merely filter bright light, which is what you need to see reflecting off of airplanes out there. Aircraft plexiglass (and instruments and iPads) are already polarized to minimize glare, so if you wear polarized sunglasses it's going to make it more difficult to see airplanes in the sky.

Fixation on looking only in the direction your airplane is going is a common error, most likely a habit that is carried over from driving a car. Most mid-air collisions are not head-on; they are either at an angle or from behind/over/under your airplane. Spend a portion of your time looking outside the airplane in directions other than just directly in front of you.

When overflying airports on cross-country trips, monitor CTAF or Tower, even if you don't intend to land there. I've improved my awareness of arriving and departing traffic and avoided a couple close calls while flying over airports like Palomar and Montgomery (in pre-ADS-B days) simply by overhearing controllers point out traffic (me) to other airplanes.

OPERATION LIGHTS ON

The FAA’s voluntary pilot safety program, Operation Lights On, encourages the use of your landing light during takeoff, and whenever you’re below 10,000’ or within 10-miles of an airport. If you’re flying an airplane with an LED landing and/or taxi light, leave it on all the time --- those things will be around long after we’re all gone.

Your rotating beacon should be on prior to engine start. Prior to taxi you should turn on navigation, position and anticollision lights (and Transponder on ALT!). For more, please review AIM 4-3-23.

THE MORE YOU KNOW

The previous article I posted, Edge of the Envelope, also has some good tips related to flying an airplane near airports and below 1,500’ AGL; click here to read it.

Here are a couple other things to take a gander at:

AIM 4-4-14 offers visual separation and scanning techniques.

AIM 4-4-15  has some tips on visual clearing procedures – Takeoff, climbs, descents, traffic patterns, VOR's, during training operations

Did you know you are supposed to report any near mid-air collision  of < 500'? Review  AIM 7-6-3  and then tell ATC: “I wish to report a near mid-air collision”. You can do that on the radio or by phone to the nearest FAA ATC or FSS facility, or in writing, to your local FSDO.

AOPA has put together a great Safety Advisor PDF relating to collision avoidance. Download it by clicking here.

The FAA’s Advisory Circular, AC 90-48C covers Pilots' Role in Collision Avoidance. This 32-year old document contains lots of good information relating to traffic patterns, scan techniques, and communication suggestions. Click here to download the PDF.

Fly safely out there, and keep your head on a swivel!

© Garry Wing 2015