Why would you be surprised to see airplanes flying a couple of thousand
ft above you? I never had a controller point out a traffic 2000' above
except in unusual circumstances - ie heavy C130 crossing above my flight
path etc..


Robert Chambers wrote in
:

ATC doesn't know all the time if you're IMC or VMC. Even if the
traffic in your area is also IFR and therefore under their control
they still may point it out to you so it doesn't come as a surprise
when you get within visual distance of each other. I was flying IFR
in the northeast a few years back at 5000' ATC called out "a string
of sixes 4 miles 12 O'clock". As it turned out we were between layers
of clouds between 4500 and 6000' or so. In a minute or so I saw 3
Dash-8's going the opposite direction a couple of thousand feet above
me. There was no collision hazard of course but it was good that the
controller told me because I might have been surprised to see them
otherwise.

Andrew Sarangan wrote:
I thought the purpose was to maintain visual separation from the
other traffic. If both traffic are under IFR, then separation is
automatically provided, so I still don't see what the purpose of
pointing out the other traffic is.


"Peter Duniho" wrote in
:


"Andrew Sarangan" wrote in message
1.61...

If the other traffic were IFR, then what is the purpose of ATC
pointing out
that traffic?

Huh?

The purpose is the same reason they would point out VFR traffic: so
that you are aware of other traffic in your vicinity.

Pete