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.
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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