It was a beautiful day for flying in Southern California today. Visibility was 50 miles, negligible wind, some high Cirrus clouds, moderate temps. For those familiar with SOCal flying I will describe the route that nearly ended tragically for me.
I planned a flight from Agua Dulce (L70) to Fullerton (KFUL) (distance 46nm and 18 mins) in my RV6A to pick up my daughter for a weekend visit and some flying. Between those two airports there is a mountain range, Burbank Class C airspace, and the outer rings of the LAX Class B airspace and a couple of airports with Class D airspace. I studied the LAX TAC chart and plotted a route that would keep me north of the Burbank Class B airspace which would take me to El Monte airport (KEMT). After passing KEMT with the top of the Class D at 2600 I could turn direct to KFUL and descend under the floor of the Class B airspace which is 4000 ft along that route. I had my chart on my lap and was watching my G496 as a crosscheck for airspace boundaries. For the flight up to KEMT I was monitoring SoCal approach but not talking to them. When I passed KEMT I descended to 3500 on a heading of about 155 and after listening to FUL ATIS switched to FUL tower. I was about 8 miles out.
Suddenly I caught movement out of the corner of my eye on my right. A Citation jet passed over my plane so close that I heard a loud 'whoosh', the sound of the disturbed air followed by the whine of the two jet engines. I had no time to take evasive action, it was over in a second or two. It did not appear the crew of the Citation jet saw me as they were in a steep climb and took no obvious evasive action. Holy smokes! I estimated the vertical separation at 100 feet. My first thought was it would have been over so fast I would not have felt a thing. I looked over my left shoulder to see the jet climbing like **** NE bound. My next thought was how did that just happen? Was I inside Class B airspace? Where did that jet come from? I checked my position. I was exactly where I intended to be below the 4000 foot floor of one of the LAX Class B outer rings. My altitude was 3400 not 3500. I had strayed from my intended altitude of 3500 by 100 feet and that may have saved my life!
If there had been a midair the NTSB would say that I had failed to see and avoid other traffic as required under VFR flight. I have been going over this NMAC now for eight hours wondering what I did wrong and/or what I could have done differently to prevent such a close encounter.
Before I go into that part, I contacted SoCal TRACON to find out where that jet came from and to report the NMAC. The controller I talked to gathered the details of where, when, heading, altitude, speed, etc and said he would review the radar tapes and get back to me. Within an hour I got a call back and he confirmed that the radar tapes showed a vertical separation of 100' and less then 2/10 mile horiz separation. I did a little math and determined the 2/10 mile horiz separation was about 2 to 3 seconds. The Citation jet had just departed from EMT on Rwy 19 on an instrument departure. I have been to KEMT many times and never saw a jet there and did not know the Rwy was long enough for jets. After flying Rwy Hdg to 1500 feet the jet turned NE bound and that is where our flight paths crossed at about 90 degree intercept. The jet was flying the IFR departure as instructed.
What went wrong? What could I have done differently?
1. As I passed over KEMT though above their airspace I could have monitored EMT tower. My plane has two radios. I might have heard the takeoff clearance for the jet and perhaps the direction of flight.
2. I could have monitored the SoCal Approach frequency for that area and I might have caught the radio traffic between the jet and SoCal App. I was monitoring SoCal App earlier in the flight while near Burbank airport but discontinued as I descended and approached my destination.
3. I could have requested flight following from SoCal for my entire flight though I know from past expereince that at that altitude in that area below the Class B they often cancel flight following due to poor radar coverage and/or workload. The SoCal TRACON controller who investigated the NMAC indicated radar coverage was poor in that area that low.
4. I could have done a better job of scanning for traffic. I was not looking inside the cockpit prior to the NMAC and given this jet's climbing flight profile I may not have seen him climbing toward me from below. I have taught classes on scanning, I know the limitations of the eye, I strive to maintain eyes outside but today I failed to detect a imminent collision threat in time.
5. I could invest in a traffic collision avoidance system to assist in identifying other traffic threats. I have tried the XAON portable system and was not that impressed but it is better than nothing. I checked into Garmin's active traffic system for general aviation aircraft in the past. For about 9-10,000$ you can purchase one of these systems. Now that there is ADS-B traffic available with the proper equipment I will check into buying that system.
I almost died today and it made a big impression on me. It was pure luck that I survived. I posted this overly long thread to share that story to illustrate how fast things can go wrong. We all know that the age-old "see and avoid" has some limitations particularly in busy airspace and under certain atmospheric conditions.
I have been flying in the SoCal area for over 20 years and I have always felt the greatest risk on every flight is NOT an engine failure, fire, instrument or equipment failure. It is a MID-AIR collision. There are an awful lot of aircraft of all types, many airports, complicated airspace, student pilots, foreign pilots, overloaded pilots etc.
I will be investing in a traffic collision system ASAP and cost is not a factor any longer.
If you have any comments (good or bad) or suggestions I welcome them.
I planned a flight from Agua Dulce (L70) to Fullerton (KFUL) (distance 46nm and 18 mins) in my RV6A to pick up my daughter for a weekend visit and some flying. Between those two airports there is a mountain range, Burbank Class C airspace, and the outer rings of the LAX Class B airspace and a couple of airports with Class D airspace. I studied the LAX TAC chart and plotted a route that would keep me north of the Burbank Class B airspace which would take me to El Monte airport (KEMT). After passing KEMT with the top of the Class D at 2600 I could turn direct to KFUL and descend under the floor of the Class B airspace which is 4000 ft along that route. I had my chart on my lap and was watching my G496 as a crosscheck for airspace boundaries. For the flight up to KEMT I was monitoring SoCal approach but not talking to them. When I passed KEMT I descended to 3500 on a heading of about 155 and after listening to FUL ATIS switched to FUL tower. I was about 8 miles out.
Suddenly I caught movement out of the corner of my eye on my right. A Citation jet passed over my plane so close that I heard a loud 'whoosh', the sound of the disturbed air followed by the whine of the two jet engines. I had no time to take evasive action, it was over in a second or two. It did not appear the crew of the Citation jet saw me as they were in a steep climb and took no obvious evasive action. Holy smokes! I estimated the vertical separation at 100 feet. My first thought was it would have been over so fast I would not have felt a thing. I looked over my left shoulder to see the jet climbing like **** NE bound. My next thought was how did that just happen? Was I inside Class B airspace? Where did that jet come from? I checked my position. I was exactly where I intended to be below the 4000 foot floor of one of the LAX Class B outer rings. My altitude was 3400 not 3500. I had strayed from my intended altitude of 3500 by 100 feet and that may have saved my life!
If there had been a midair the NTSB would say that I had failed to see and avoid other traffic as required under VFR flight. I have been going over this NMAC now for eight hours wondering what I did wrong and/or what I could have done differently to prevent such a close encounter.
Before I go into that part, I contacted SoCal TRACON to find out where that jet came from and to report the NMAC. The controller I talked to gathered the details of where, when, heading, altitude, speed, etc and said he would review the radar tapes and get back to me. Within an hour I got a call back and he confirmed that the radar tapes showed a vertical separation of 100' and less then 2/10 mile horiz separation. I did a little math and determined the 2/10 mile horiz separation was about 2 to 3 seconds. The Citation jet had just departed from EMT on Rwy 19 on an instrument departure. I have been to KEMT many times and never saw a jet there and did not know the Rwy was long enough for jets. After flying Rwy Hdg to 1500 feet the jet turned NE bound and that is where our flight paths crossed at about 90 degree intercept. The jet was flying the IFR departure as instructed.
What went wrong? What could I have done differently?
1. As I passed over KEMT though above their airspace I could have monitored EMT tower. My plane has two radios. I might have heard the takeoff clearance for the jet and perhaps the direction of flight.
2. I could have monitored the SoCal Approach frequency for that area and I might have caught the radio traffic between the jet and SoCal App. I was monitoring SoCal App earlier in the flight while near Burbank airport but discontinued as I descended and approached my destination.
3. I could have requested flight following from SoCal for my entire flight though I know from past expereince that at that altitude in that area below the Class B they often cancel flight following due to poor radar coverage and/or workload. The SoCal TRACON controller who investigated the NMAC indicated radar coverage was poor in that area that low.
4. I could have done a better job of scanning for traffic. I was not looking inside the cockpit prior to the NMAC and given this jet's climbing flight profile I may not have seen him climbing toward me from below. I have taught classes on scanning, I know the limitations of the eye, I strive to maintain eyes outside but today I failed to detect a imminent collision threat in time.
5. I could invest in a traffic collision avoidance system to assist in identifying other traffic threats. I have tried the XAON portable system and was not that impressed but it is better than nothing. I checked into Garmin's active traffic system for general aviation aircraft in the past. For about 9-10,000$ you can purchase one of these systems. Now that there is ADS-B traffic available with the proper equipment I will check into buying that system.
I almost died today and it made a big impression on me. It was pure luck that I survived. I posted this overly long thread to share that story to illustrate how fast things can go wrong. We all know that the age-old "see and avoid" has some limitations particularly in busy airspace and under certain atmospheric conditions.
I have been flying in the SoCal area for over 20 years and I have always felt the greatest risk on every flight is NOT an engine failure, fire, instrument or equipment failure. It is a MID-AIR collision. There are an awful lot of aircraft of all types, many airports, complicated airspace, student pilots, foreign pilots, overloaded pilots etc.
I will be investing in a traffic collision system ASAP and cost is not a factor any longer.
If you have any comments (good or bad) or suggestions I welcome them.