Nearly Mid-Air Collision at Estrella

In the Washington, Idaho, Oregon area, we were told (last year, by a
military ATC person briefing us at our contest) about 20% of the big
transports have TCAS or equivalent; all new ones get it; old ones are
slowly being retrofitted. None of the fighters have it. A couple of
years ago, a fighter pilot told me fighters can usually pick up small
aircraft on their radar. He didn't comment specifically about when they
are flying close to the ground, like the time Chip Garner was hit, or
the crop duster fatality we had here several years ago when he was hit a
few hundred feet off the ground by a fighter.

If you have a transponder, and the transports are flying high enough to
show on the radar (here they are often quite low during training), the
military ATC will warn them of your presence. Not as good as TCAS on the
transport; better than nothing!

Twice, I've had two A-10s climb by me at 30 degree angles (not in MOAs,
either). I believe they saw me and came up to take a look; I sure hope
so, because I don't think there is any way I can see something coming
that fast from below me, and so quickly.

Gary Evans wrote:
Do military aircraft utilize transponder signal based
collision avoidance systems?


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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA