Riddle me this, pilots

Nice thread.

Turning towards the tail of the traffic is natural for me, and has always
worked so far, especially when VMC. I share the sailing experience of the
the earlier posters.

I mostly fly IFR. While IMC, I have experienced several ATC-supplied traffic
alerts for VFR traffic, but no visual contact.

I also recall traveling IMC (in and out of CU) and briefly observing
crossing traffic slightly above my altitude, with NO traffic call out. When
I queried ATC, they didn't have him, so the traffic may have not been using
a transponder. I was lucky to miss.

A small nit: I fly a low-wing, and any ATC traffic alert inside of 4-5 miles
and below my altitude will be hard to see without some maneuvering to remove
my airplane's nose or wing from line-of sight. I expect even a high-wing
will also have at least the problem of traffic under the nose. I get a lot
of these alerts, where the traffic is a thousand or more below me, often
unverified, and I find them useless.

But if the traffic is approaching my altitude and is under my nose or wing,
I need to maneuver anyway to see it, so will appreciate a vector from ATC to
both see and avoid.