....

Jeff, you can't contact the other plane. You might get lucky and be on the
same frequency as the other guy but there is no air-to-air channel for
such things that people have to listen to by regulation or even by
standardly accepted good practice. So you can talk all you want into the
mic odds are, you'll only annoy the local CTAFs! :-)

There are channels for use (half step above the CTAF freq, ie: 122.75,
122.85) for air-to-air but an arrangement has to be made ahead of time
between the pilots to be there. Which is not the case here.
I don't know how close he was, but by the time we passed behind him, I'd
*GUESS* we might have been within half a mile (at the closest point and
when he was heading away from me).


Agreed! I didn't truly expect to get him. Most of the local airports in
this area (98% uncontrolled) use the same CTAF, 122.8 (and yes it can get
quite overloaded at times). My Comm1 stays there unless I'm getting close
to an airport that might use something different. I wasn't about to rely on
the radio to keep us seperated, but if he had gotten any closer, I was going
to rattle every chain that I could try

And yes, my CFI wasn't even bothered by it. When I pointed him out, he
started watching him close and didn't get all that worried until he stopped
moving in the windshield. Then he just said, let's head behind him and keep
a close eye on him after we pass.

This has turned into a MUCH bigger deal in R.A.P than it was in real life

jf