Near miss blamed on faulty transponder

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 scheduled for a discovery flight in a Piper Warrior. It was a clear VFR day.

The passenger that I took up is a work colleague at the FBO, so I taxied across the field from the flight academy to pick her up. While taxiing over to the FBO, everything looked to be correct, including the transponder.

I picked up my work colleague for her discovery flight and was cleared to taxi to the runway. Holding short of the runway, I did my run-up and before takeoff checklist. I verified that my transponder was still on. Soon, I was cleared for takeoff.

After about five minutes I was told that I was exiting the Delta airspace, and that my frequency change was approved. I leveled off at 4,500 feet MSL. I continued to monitor tower and do the discovery flight.

I was in a left turn, looking off my left wing, when I noticed a shadow above me. I immediately rolled out of my turn, seeing the jet in front of me. I was shaken up, because I had no visual of the traffic, until after their passage. I headed back to the airport.

Upon entering ZZZ, the tower asked if my transponder was on. I looked down and noticed that my transponder was not on. I tried turning my transponder on four times, by clicking the power button, and the transponder was not responding.

By the time I had reached the approach end of runway XX, my transponder had turned back on. I landed safely with my passenger, taking her back to the FBO, where I parked and talked with the jet pilots.

There were two pilots who had approached me, asking if I was the instructor of the aircraft located outside. I responded by telling them yes and explained that I did not see them until after they had passed me. The two pilots claimed that we were nearly 200 feet apart from each other, and that I was at fault for the near mid-air collision. The two pilots also claimed that they saw me before over flying me, but rather than correcting their course they decided to fly over me.

I believe that this situation could have been avoided, if both myself and the other pilots performed a better visual, more consistent cross-scan.

From this situation, I have learned to integrate the transponder into my cross-scan more. This mental checklist will prevent further occurrences, knowing that my transponder is always on.

Primary Problem: Aircraft

ACN: 2052708