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.
Was cruising at 4,500 feet on an east-southeast heading to Dane County Regional Airport-Truax Field (KMSN) in Madison, Wisconsin. Was originally going to fly at 3,500 feet, but hit a lot of chop, so decided to climb.
For some reason, when I got to 4,500 feet, I leveled off thinking it was an appropriate altitude. I remained on this heading for about five to 10 minutes when my ForeFlight-equipped iPad alerted me that it was overheating.
While looking for a place to put it to cool without sliding around the cabin, I caught motion out of the corner of my eye and saw a low-wing Aircraft Y at a fairly close distance.
Had I been at 3,500 feet or 5,500 feet, the vertical distance would have been much greater. Had my ForeFlight been running leading up to the encounter, it would have alerted me of the aircraft, and that would have triggered me to question my altitude. If I had been on flight following, I would have gotten a call-out.
The near miss was a result of me being at an incorrect altitude paired with not utilizing flight following. I don’t believe Aircraft Y did anything incorrectly.
Primary Problem: Human Factors
ACN: 2032168
One question is…were you less than 3000 feet above the ground? If so some of the comments above are not necessarily accurate and maybe they should also read far part 91.159.
Pay more attention to flying your airplane and less to accommodating with your electronics.
I’ve had my iPad overheat many times. A buddy of mine has a fancy fan-equipped iPad holder, but not me yet. I DO have a backup iPad, though, and my cell phone, both running Foreflight. Another buddy of mine told me “East isn’t even,” when thinking about VFR altitudes, and that stuck with me, instead of trying to remember West is even, East is odd, etc., as in eastbound is 3500, 5500, etc. Over.
Statement: If we’re in the world of “ifs,” Mr. Wrong; without approach plates, etc., you’d shoot an ASR approach “if” there’s one available.
This is why, Mr. Wrong when I do my IFR planning I know the nearest airports that support ASR approaches and I have a working two-way radio.
From what I could understand on his poorly written commentary, this type of incompetence is common and out of control. My question is usually the same. Who was his flight examiner?
FIRST find a place to put that EFB where it has air to cool it, or get a kneeboard with cooling fans and cables to charge those batteries (EFB and Fan).
Second: I recommend getting one of those yellow cards that lists the altitude for magnetic course being flown and sticking it into the headliner, or taping it somewhere where you can reference it. OR make your own with a 3×5 card.
Question: if you are Instrument rated, and you lose your EFB, do you know that you have to tell ATC? Why? because unless you have paper charts or a backup unit already loaded and running, how are you going to do an approach if assigned?
This is why my iPhone is running the same software (and is not a physcially small iPhone. While it is smaller than my iPad, I can read it, get an approach to display, etc..
More.of a near miss due to not paying attention to basic flying protocal instead of waiting to be told you have a problem.