2008 Woodie Awards
Visual scanning and collision avoidance
Adam Perakis
Issue date: 3/10/08 Section: News
Picture yourself flying with your instructor (or instructors, picture yourself flying with your students), and you are beginning to set up for a power-off stall. The routine begins as it should; the pre-maneuver flow is being done and you are ready to set up for a few clearing turns. You see a small dot off in the distance and can think of it as nothing more than maybe an aircraft way off in the distance or even a spot on the windscreen.
About 20 seconds pass and you are finishing your second 90 degree clearing turn when much to your surprise, you look ahead only to find that the once tiny dot has evolved into a Baron 58 flying just a mere 70 feet above you in the opposite direction. You of course take evasive action to avoid what could become more than just a Near Mid-Air Collision (NMAC).
Sound unreal? This was an experience that I unfortunately went through while flying with a student in the Big Spring practice area. As scary and eye opening it was for me, it is unfortunate to think that this is not uncommon in everyday flight. What is even worse about these encounters to many pilots is that they occur in the most ideal of flight conditions: Day VFR.
From Day 1 when we all began flight training we were taught the traditional method to scan the sky slowly at small, segmented intervals to look for traffic. Now I am not suggesting abandoning this method, but rather, to reexamine this method. This scan technique works well when used frequently and properly. If a traffic conflict looks imminent, take action. Much like defensive driving, do not assume that another aircraft will have you in sight, nor make the fatal assumption that that aircraft will do anything to alter its course; you as the pilot must be vigilant and follow your own plan of action should the situation deem necessary.
Another statistic that should remain in our minds when trying to be "traffic alert" is where we tend to operate our aircraft. The traffic pattern has always been and will always be a congested and busy area to operate within. More than 70 percent of our reported NMACs have been reported by pilots operating within the traffic pattern. The runner-up was aircraft operating over Drake doing instrument approaches.
About 20 seconds pass and you are finishing your second 90 degree clearing turn when much to your surprise, you look ahead only to find that the once tiny dot has evolved into a Baron 58 flying just a mere 70 feet above you in the opposite direction. You of course take evasive action to avoid what could become more than just a Near Mid-Air Collision (NMAC).
Sound unreal? This was an experience that I unfortunately went through while flying with a student in the Big Spring practice area. As scary and eye opening it was for me, it is unfortunate to think that this is not uncommon in everyday flight. What is even worse about these encounters to many pilots is that they occur in the most ideal of flight conditions: Day VFR.
From Day 1 when we all began flight training we were taught the traditional method to scan the sky slowly at small, segmented intervals to look for traffic. Now I am not suggesting abandoning this method, but rather, to reexamine this method. This scan technique works well when used frequently and properly. If a traffic conflict looks imminent, take action. Much like defensive driving, do not assume that another aircraft will have you in sight, nor make the fatal assumption that that aircraft will do anything to alter its course; you as the pilot must be vigilant and follow your own plan of action should the situation deem necessary.
Another statistic that should remain in our minds when trying to be "traffic alert" is where we tend to operate our aircraft. The traffic pattern has always been and will always be a congested and busy area to operate within. More than 70 percent of our reported NMACs have been reported by pilots operating within the traffic pattern. The runner-up was aircraft operating over Drake doing instrument approaches.
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