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.
I was departing ZZZ Airport when ATC advised there was a helicopter a few hundred feet below and about a mile off my left wing. I reported traffic in sight.
ATC then contacted the helicopter and informed him that I was off his right side and he acknowledged and reported he had me in sight.
Shortly after that the helicopter began a climbing right turn towards my direction.
The helicopter went out of my field of view due to me being in the right seat in the Cessna 172. I asked my student if he had visual contact with the helicopter, but he did not give me a clear answer and started looking around frantically.
My ADS-B was showing me the aircraft was directly below me and at an extremely close distance.
I then decided to take control of the aircraft from my student and perform evasive maneuvers to avoid collision. I applied full power and began a steep climb before lowering my left wing to establish visual contact with the helicopter.
I saw the aircraft directly below me at a very close range still climbing alongside me.
I continued my climbing turn away from the helicopter and once I was clear I checked my altimeter and I was at 3,100 feet, 100 feet into the overlying class Bravo airspace beginning at 3,000. I quickly reduced throttle and returned to 2,800 feet.
I believe without the evasive maneuvers I performed it could have resulted in collision.
I believe due to the high traffic area the helicopter may have not seen us and referred to another Cessna, resulting in him beginning his turning climb directly into our path. I wouldn’t imagine the pilot knowingly would have done that.
Primary Problem: Human Factors
ACN: 1953623
Another Showdown at the GA Corral in the Wild West of the airspace. Reminiscent of the turn of the last century when cars were just beginning to appear on the old streets and before traffic lights were deployed. Had some horrendous life-taking crashes at intersections and discussions about who had the right-of-way, which were quickly disregarded by the courts. There must be a better, safer way than ‘see and be seen’ even with radio confirmation — not always absolutely dependable. Guess time and design ingenuity will tell. “Need is the mother of invention,” and there sure is a need here to safely direct traffic at airports beyond sight and radio.
Regards/J
Sounds more like the copter was repositioning for alignment.
I can’t quite make out where the pilot flew–did they dip the left wing to look, see the helicopter, then do a climbing RIGHT turn? Oh, notice how, in the story of “I almost died from a mid-air,” was the horrifying tale of–AAUUUUUUGH! going 100 feet into Class B airspace. Like that was the same as the near-midair.
Some of these reports are done to avoid an FAA action against one’s certificate(s).
I forgot the name of the program for this. And so, if you, as a CFI, end up violating a reg by busting class B airspace, you just might want to file one of these reports. And that is how this reads to me.