ASRS Reports

While positioning my Van’s RV-12 for my arrival, my ADS-B suddenly depicted a traffic conflict alert indicating a high-speed target approaching my position. It seems I received very little warning possibly due to the approaching aircraft’s relatively high-speed (estimated at 220 knots) and the 8-nm scale being depicted on my moving map display.

This was a delivery of a newly purchased aircraft. The aircraft had been mostly idle for a few years prior to the event.

I believe that there are safer ways to handle this situation than rejecting the arriving aircraft on the Kent Arrival. The other VFR arrival procedures into KBFI (Vashon, Green Lake, and Bellevue arrivals) all have safe options to break off the approach since they are not as constrained as the Kent Arrival.

After I assure that the aircraft is stable and the student has control, I look to our five o’clock and see the traffic only a couple hundred feet behind us. It was close enough to see the pilot in the front seat and the red and white paint.

He was supposed to turn left into the downwind for XXR but turned right into the downwind for XYL. This positioned our aircraft into a head-on position.

This aircraft requires fast and careful technique towards the end of the landing rollout to prevent a ground loop.

During an instructional pattern flight my student mistakenly did not switch tanks during the flight. Because of this we operated on one tank until that tank was empty, and the result was fuel starvation that caused engine failure.

Tower does a good job of warning everybody about wake turbulence, but I think pilots like myself have become complacent about the warnings, especially when we hear them so often and incidents like this one are so rare.

I immediately advised ATC because I realized I could not safely land the plane and was not sure I had full control with the envelope protection system engagement. After advising ATC I reverted to my training, prioritizing aviate, navigate, and communicate.