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ADSB save - or near enough for me

airguy

airguy

Unrepentant fanboy
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This morning I was flying my 9A into KMDD headed to work, talking to Midland approach. They pointed out traffic at my 1 o'clock opposite direction 5 miles and handed me to advisory frequency. I saw the traffic on ADSB but not visually, he was on a parallel course about 1 mile to my right coming at me, about 900 below as I was descending into KMDD. He was not talking to approach and he was not on KMDD advisory frequency.

I was still descending and getting within 300' of his altitude and had not found him visually yet - when I noticed on the ADSB screen he had taken a 90-degree right hand turn and was heading directly for me, less than a mile, just as the Dynon squawk-box hollered "Traffic!". I gave up the visual search and pulled about 2.5 positive G to quickly add several hundred feet between us. I finally caught sight of him just as he crossed under me, we would have had less than 100 yards separation if I had maintained my original course and descent.

I don't know any way to have avoided this, since the other pilot was not talking on the local frequency nor to approach (he was in Class E airspace, so not required) but having the ability to SEE him electronically certainly gave me the situational awareness to avoid a close encounter and possibly worse. I did not have a tail number on my screen so the other aircraft was not ADSB-equipped.
 
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airguy said:
This morning I was flying my 9A into KMDD headed to work, talking to Midland approach. They pointed out traffic at my 1 o'clock opposite direction 5 miles and handed me to advisory frequency. I saw the traffic on ADSB but not visually, he was on a parallel course about 1 mile to my right coming at me, about 900 below as I was descending into KMDD. He was not talking to approach and he was not on KMDD advisory frequency.

I was still descending and getting within 300' of his altitude and had not found him visually yet - when I noticed on the ADSB screen he had taken a 90-degree right hand turn and was heading directly for me, less than a mile, just as the Dynon squawk-box hollered "Traffic!". I gave up the visual search and pulled about 2.5 positive G to quickly add several hundred feet between us. I finally caught sight of him just as he crossed under me, we would have had less than 100 yards separation if I had maintained my original course and descent.

I don't know any way to have avoided this, since the other pilot was not talking on the local frequency nor to approach (he was in Class E airspace, so not required) but having the ability to SEE him electronically certainly gave me the situational awareness to avoid a close encounter and possibly worse. I did not have a tail number on my screen so the other aircraft was not ADSB-equipped.
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Wouldn't it be great if everyone would fly with their landing light on. You can see it over 15 miles during the day.

Motorcycles have done this for years...... and have saved MANY lives.
 
gasman said:
Wouldn't it be great if everyone would fly with their landing light on. You can see it over 15 miles during the day.

Motorcycles have done this for years...... and have saved MANY lives.
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And, wigwag lights make it even easier to find/see.
 
Glad you were able to take avoiding action Greg as it sounds like the other guy never saw you.

I was saved about 10 years ago with my Monroy Traffic Alert which used transponder signals to call out nearby traffic. I was in the middle of nowhere at 9500 feet (uncontrolled airspace) and the alert went off. It usually gave first warning at about 3 NM. About 15 seconds later I spotted the traffic about 70 degrees to my right converging fast, same altitude (wrong altitude for his direction of flight).

I pushed forward on the stick at about 1/2 a mile to keep him in view and the 421 passed directly over my canopy. I believe we would have collided or missed by less than 20 feet if I hadn't lost that 200 feet in the last few seconds.

My scan was usually left or right maybe 60 degrees. That wasn't quite enough to catch this guy and maybe not often enough anyway given the closing speeds.

The electronics will certainly save a few folks. Luckily this guy had his transponder on because some don't.
 
gasman said:
Wouldn't it be great if everyone would fly with their landing light on. You can see it over 15 miles during the day.

Motorcycles have done this for years...... and have saved MANY lives.
Click to expand...

Mike S said:
And, wigwag lights make it even easier to find/see.
Click to expand...

Remember, there are a LOT of planes out there flying around without lights, wig-wags, radios, etc.

Even with ADS-B, you have to keep your head and eyes outside the cockpit.
 
gasman said:
Wouldn't it be great if everyone would fly with their landing light on.
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I definitely would except for the fact that the light is on my (retractable) landing gear. It's highly visible when the gear are down, but not so much in cruise.
 
Agree - ADS-B and lights are great tools. But let's not forget flight following - Saved my bacon back in the day.
 
I still need to connect my iPad via Bluetooth to my headset audio somehow so I can get the audible "Traffic!" alerts, and the others that Foreflight offers. Too cheap to buy a new headset.
 
Glad things worked out. I regularly fly a non engine-driven electrical system Luscombe without avionics. I fly legally in Class E and G (and Mode C veils yada yada). Since I don't use flight following, don't have lights, don't have Mode C, I would hope the human eye is still the primary TCAS system onboard all aircraft. In a similar scenario with me coming the other way no annunciations or traffic display at all. A large number of aerial applicators fly without any transponder equipment also. Nordo/non electrical works especially well if folks follow the AIM and fly standard patterns and don't do straight-ins at uncontrolled fields. One thing the Luscombe does have is a very nice moving map in ultra high resolution; a windscreen. Think of all the decades that aircraft have been flying around without the little chevron shaped triangles on an electronic gizmo.
 
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N941WR said:
Remember, there are a LOT of planes out there flying around without lights, wig-wags, radios, etc.

Even with ADS-B, you have to keep your head and eyes outside the cockpit.
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You have a light...... turn it on..... THEY MAY SEE YOU....:eek:
 
snopercod said:
I still need to connect my iPad via Bluetooth to my headset audio somehow so I can get the audible "Traffic!" alerts, and the others that Foreflight offers. Too cheap to buy a new headset.
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H-m-m-m, interesting. I've gotta call Garmin Pilot and see if they offer this feature. (I already use wig wag lights, especially when near Atlanta's airport, and the airliners are coming.) Respectfully---to the guy in post 11, eyeballs just ain't good enough. In my 50 some years of flying, I can't tell you how many near miss's I've had. It's scary. One time, I was IFR, and ATC was warning us about traffic headed right for us. I mean REALLY WARNING, it was that bad. We couldn't find the traffic. So finally, I just banked right, and then finally we saw him. He was maybe 500 Ft below us, but otherwise headed right for us.:eek:

(I've got ADS B in, but not ADS B out yet. Sometimes I see a target that looks threatening enough to take evasive action, but for the life of me, I can't get a visual on him):eek::eek:
 
Our flying club has experienced at least three separate saves just this month due to having on board ADS-B traffic. I was involved in one of those and would have passed within 100' laterally and vertically of a dark colored Cirrus who was coming at us from our 11 o'clock position. I doubt we would have ever seen him coming right at us.

I can't encourage people strongly enough to have on board ADS-B traffic info.
 
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