Paul 5r4
Well Known Member
I wrote the following story about 5 years ago the night this very near miss occured. It was because of this I bought the ZAON XRX just this past week. My thoughts and review on the XRX follow the story.
What a beautiful evening it was last night. I had just cleaned my plugs because of a bad mag drop on the right when I decided to take it up for a quick 15 minute flight. There was a hot air balloon festival going on one mile southwest of the airport so I knew to be on the lookout. I made a pre-departure radio call including asking for any traffic to give a report then took off into the beautiful evening air. Leveling at 1000 feet, I glanced out to my left taking notice of the backed up traffic because of the festival. I spent not more than 5 seconds looking left when I looked to the front again. I actually said outloud "UH OH!" There about 300 feet dead ahead was another aircraft coming straight at me. He was probably looking at the balloons out to his left and never saw me. I immeadiatly banked hard left and at the same instant looked out to the right where I caught a glimpse of an aircraft pass not more than 20 feet from my flight path! I'm sure... If I hadn't banked hard left raising the right wing, it would have impacted the other aircraft. The entire incident lasted at best 2 seconds!
I continued south for a few minutes before returning to land. I caught sight once more of the other aircraft flying southwest of the airport. I tried to raise him on the radio with no luck. I did get a helecopter and warned him of someone that wasn't talking to anybody.
I had looked out the window to my left only 5 seconds. I did it sitting here at my computer and now it seems like an eternity. My speed was 90 kts and his speed was probably a little faster as he looked to be a larger aircraft. If he was just doing 100 kts, that means a combined closure rate of 220 MPH! That's 322 feet per second or in just 5 seconds 1613 feet! I felt no fear at the time or while flying. Actually, I'm more shook up now. Writing this must be therapy. The big sky theory was put to the test today and it almost wasn't big enough.
Paul Gray--N757GX--Cessna 152--Foley, Alabama
The Zaon XRX: Ok now straight up... I will not fly without this little thing ever again. This is the one with the big ugly antenna. I was concerned about the size and obstruction to view with it sitting on the dash of my 152, (RV 7A isn't finished yet). Guys, this thing is tiny! Maybe just a bit larger than a deck of cards. Obstruction to view.... what few square inches I lose with my eyeballs are more than made up for because of the eyes built into this thing. The manual says it absolutely takes a transponder squawk for this to work. In other words, there are no "false positives." Of course if the threat aircraft has no transponder, it's off or it's not being tagged from an ATC radar or another aircraft with TCAS, the XRX will not see it. Another draw back I've experienced is the direction capability is best taken as a guidline and not an absolute. I flew today and it was picking up an aircraft straight ahead 1.5 miles and 800 ft below me. I was really working my 52 year old eye balls hard and could not find this guy. A few seconds later he made a radio call of his position and then I spotted him off to my 2 oclock. Pretty close but not perfect. That's ok though. if the XRX had not let me know and he had not called I'd never noticed someone 800 ft low and in the haze. One other interesting thing the manual states is that the closer the threat aircraft is the more accurate the XRX becomes due to a stronger signal. If I had this little device 5 years ago, I'm pretty sure I'd have known about that guy mentioned above before ever leaving the ground. I was speaking with a friend of mine about my $1350 purchace and he said it best, "Hey, if it saves your life just once it was worth it!" Well said. The XRX will someday be sitting in my 7A cockpit!
What a beautiful evening it was last night. I had just cleaned my plugs because of a bad mag drop on the right when I decided to take it up for a quick 15 minute flight. There was a hot air balloon festival going on one mile southwest of the airport so I knew to be on the lookout. I made a pre-departure radio call including asking for any traffic to give a report then took off into the beautiful evening air. Leveling at 1000 feet, I glanced out to my left taking notice of the backed up traffic because of the festival. I spent not more than 5 seconds looking left when I looked to the front again. I actually said outloud "UH OH!" There about 300 feet dead ahead was another aircraft coming straight at me. He was probably looking at the balloons out to his left and never saw me. I immeadiatly banked hard left and at the same instant looked out to the right where I caught a glimpse of an aircraft pass not more than 20 feet from my flight path! I'm sure... If I hadn't banked hard left raising the right wing, it would have impacted the other aircraft. The entire incident lasted at best 2 seconds!
I continued south for a few minutes before returning to land. I caught sight once more of the other aircraft flying southwest of the airport. I tried to raise him on the radio with no luck. I did get a helecopter and warned him of someone that wasn't talking to anybody.
I had looked out the window to my left only 5 seconds. I did it sitting here at my computer and now it seems like an eternity. My speed was 90 kts and his speed was probably a little faster as he looked to be a larger aircraft. If he was just doing 100 kts, that means a combined closure rate of 220 MPH! That's 322 feet per second or in just 5 seconds 1613 feet! I felt no fear at the time or while flying. Actually, I'm more shook up now. Writing this must be therapy. The big sky theory was put to the test today and it almost wasn't big enough.
Paul Gray--N757GX--Cessna 152--Foley, Alabama
The Zaon XRX: Ok now straight up... I will not fly without this little thing ever again. This is the one with the big ugly antenna. I was concerned about the size and obstruction to view with it sitting on the dash of my 152, (RV 7A isn't finished yet). Guys, this thing is tiny! Maybe just a bit larger than a deck of cards. Obstruction to view.... what few square inches I lose with my eyeballs are more than made up for because of the eyes built into this thing. The manual says it absolutely takes a transponder squawk for this to work. In other words, there are no "false positives." Of course if the threat aircraft has no transponder, it's off or it's not being tagged from an ATC radar or another aircraft with TCAS, the XRX will not see it. Another draw back I've experienced is the direction capability is best taken as a guidline and not an absolute. I flew today and it was picking up an aircraft straight ahead 1.5 miles and 800 ft below me. I was really working my 52 year old eye balls hard and could not find this guy. A few seconds later he made a radio call of his position and then I spotted him off to my 2 oclock. Pretty close but not perfect. That's ok though. if the XRX had not let me know and he had not called I'd never noticed someone 800 ft low and in the haze. One other interesting thing the manual states is that the closer the threat aircraft is the more accurate the XRX becomes due to a stronger signal. If I had this little device 5 years ago, I'm pretty sure I'd have known about that guy mentioned above before ever leaving the ground. I was speaking with a friend of mine about my $1350 purchace and he said it best, "Hey, if it saves your life just once it was worth it!" Well said. The XRX will someday be sitting in my 7A cockpit!
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