This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
The student and I had taken off of Runway 17 and at 1,500 feet MSL turned on course to the practice area on a heading of about 230. At this point, I had the student put on his foggles to start his simulated instrument time.
Tower informed us that there was an aircraft about six miles to the south of the airport which was going in our general direction, their path was south to north. I acknowledged the call and told Tower we would keep a lookout for the traffic.
The student asked about something on the instrument panels, so I looked inside to answer their question.
I heard the other aircraft radio that they had us in sight. Since I had not yet gotten them in sight, I hoped to now be able to since they had.
I looked back outside in the general direction that the airplane was supposed to be at (right side) and saw the airplane in a steep bank at approximately 400 feet from us with no vertical difference. As soon as I saw them, I banked the airplane to the right and kept our climb pitch attitude. I reported to Tower that I had the aircraft in sight.
The conditions that caused the problem were: My heads-down time answering the student’s question, not having Tower get a distance from the traffic, and not being able to locate them sooner.
Actions to prevent/correct the situation: Do not have my head down to answer a student’s question, have Tower get a distance from the traffic.
Primary Problem: Human Factors
Get a power cart and learn the glass panel on the ground.
Right turns make bigger numbers.
Customize your panel. Glance at panel 2 seconds, look outside Left up and down, look at panel🔺🔻l&r. Look and focus the whole visible view.
Imagine you’re Wiley Post with only one eye.
It’s a rainy day here in Seattle-probably spent too much time on this one, but:
I gotta admit; I got a little confused by the geometry as it’s described in the narrative, so I tried drawing out the intercept on a bar napkin…
Plane A (author) is heading 230 degrees(?)….Tower tells him Plane B (bandit) is 6 miles south of the airport…but his path is “south to north”…when Plane A picks him, up he’s on the ‘right side’. If Plane A is heading roughly west, that means they merged already somewhere….unless Plane A is already further than 6 miles south of the airport himself….which I doubt if he turned at 1,500’ AGL…then Plane B is no factor. Somehow Plane B got from Plane A’s left to right side…at that point Plane B has the ROW. Probably saw Plane A ‘not yielding’ & opted to maneuver. Still can’t picture how Plane B ended up on a ‘collision course’ with Plane A.
Wondering if Plane B is the one tower pointed out in the first place…?
I know how confusing it can be, & that’s at a towered airport!
https://airfactsjournal/2015/12/near-midair-shelton-Washington/
Expect more heads down interaction with increased panel toys, all visual displays, usually all over the panel.
My argument about the “glass” instruments. Too much eyes inside, looking, adjusting, playing.
I asked a guy, when looking at his new panel, how do you ever get lost with all that stuff? You don’t!
I fly for fun. To see the outside of our great country from a prospective that very few get the chance to see it. I have the IPad, but that is the only electronics I use. That alone can keep my head inside to much. I sometimes plot a course the old fashioned way.
How about: ask the other aircraft where he is in relation to you? He said he saw you, you didn’t see him, ask “What o’clock position? Say altitude.” Tower will kill you, tower will fly you right into another aircraft, often tower doesn’t have radar.
It’s not tower’s fault if you two hit each other. Traffic nearby, type and altitude unknown—IMMEDIATE head out of cockpit, get ready for IMMEDIATE avoidance vector.
I’m a Pilot/Owner of a Cessna 177RG. Never do I think of “Tower will kill you”. It is an obvious allusion to say ‘Don’t just assume that you’re safe because the Tower is watching what’s going on” but it isn’t necessary to state it that way. If anything, in this instance and so many others, the ‘Tower will save your life’. To me, those guys are helping make the skies safer.
Unless it is a class D with RADAR, they are probably using binoculars. And they can turn you into another aircraft. I don’t care what you own or what you fly. I’ve flown all kinds of Pipers, some I owned, some was a partner, and the C77R. It is ONLY in a “C” or “B” do I trust the towers, but I verify.
So, I’ve had a few near misses at “D” towers and I was even IFR, but in VMC. In that case I’m looking regardless of what the tower says.
How does this kind of thing happen? The person calling the tower gives them the wrong location, and they have you looking for traffic that is to your left that is actually to your right.
With Radar, they see that guy and ID them and then probably give them a squawk code. Not so with a “D” not having radar.
Yes. This is not covered in reference material too well. If you’ve been based at a Class D airport that has radar, you can easily start assuming that all of them do. As far as I know there’s no place to determine if a tower has radar. When going to another Class D tower airport and the controller says something like ‘be advised another aircraft arriving from your direction’ (no altitude or position information), then start asking questions. If you ask for the other aircraft’s altitude, either the tower will ask that pilot or maybe the pilot may quickly give that information. Then you can plan on how to keep safe vertical separation. Probably in many cases the pilots through the tower can exchange information about their location in reference to landmarks or direction/dme.
Agree with the altitude part. Everyone in this situation is on the same frequency so it is an opportunity to confirm altitudes and establish vertical separation and completely eliminate the hazard. This applies also to non-tower scenarios. I once was departing to the east from a non-tower airport and a pilot reported arriving from the east. We used a ridge to the east as a reference point to our position (i.e. east of ridge/west of ridge) and agreed to hold altitude 500ft apart until we both made visual contact which we did. Super safe.
I agree with You, Anon