I was going into Lakeland on Thursday of this week for Sun n' Fun, and you all know how the traffic can get during that show and at Oshkosh. I was coming south out of Perry-Foley from a fuel stop, descending out of 9500 into the arrival. I was close to 6000' dropping at 500 fpm and I get a call of "Traffic". I looked at the screen fully expecting one of the "ownship ghosts" to show up there, but instead it was a real target that had just materialized in front of me - same altitude, 1.2 nm ahead, dead-on track to me. Callsign CXK462, I won't forget that - a Career Track pilot building time.
I don't believe he was IFR - because in that case Center would have been warning him about me, and IFR generally is not handled that close to Lakeland during the show - this occurred just immediately west of Orlando. I also don't believe he was using ADSB-IN - and by that I mean he may have HAD the data, but he was not USING the data, because he made zero attempt to avoid, which means he didn't see me. I clicked off the autopilot and pushed the nose hard down and jogged a few degrees left to build some clearance - if I had not, our paths would certainly have converged within a hundred feet, no doubt in my mind.
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N16GN/history/20260416/2031Z/KFPY/KLAL
If you look at my descent, you'll see the spot near 6000' where I dropped under him on manual control and the airspeed spiked.
Keep your head on a swivel folks - and pay attention to the gadgets giving you warnings for the stuff you don't see.
I don't believe he was IFR - because in that case Center would have been warning him about me, and IFR generally is not handled that close to Lakeland during the show - this occurred just immediately west of Orlando. I also don't believe he was using ADSB-IN - and by that I mean he may have HAD the data, but he was not USING the data, because he made zero attempt to avoid, which means he didn't see me. I clicked off the autopilot and pushed the nose hard down and jogged a few degrees left to build some clearance - if I had not, our paths would certainly have converged within a hundred feet, no doubt in my mind.
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N16GN/history/20260416/2031Z/KFPY/KLAL
If you look at my descent, you'll see the spot near 6000' where I dropped under him on manual control and the airspeed spiked.
Keep your head on a swivel folks - and pay attention to the gadgets giving you warnings for the stuff you don't see.
Last edited:



