TIS and What could have been

"Chuck" wrote in message
oups.com...
Unnerveing thing happen to me today.
I have TIS displayed on the Garmin 430.
I was 15 or 20 miles north of Moraine (I73) in southern Ohio and
talking to Dayton Controller under Flight Following.
I'm at 4500 ft and landing at Moraine. I request (I'm in his air
space) the controller that I would like to start my decent and he says
cleared to decend. Shortly, the display squacks and says "traffic" and
I see a traffic indicated at 500 ft below. I tell controller that I
have traffic on my display 500 ft below and he says "Yes, it is a 172
going into Moraine also."

No offence, but wasn't this a VFR flight? If so, the primary way to find out
about traffic is to look out of the window. I agree that the circumstances
were such that the task of spotting the other guy was made harder (your low
wings and his high wings, for example) but there are ways (e.g. weaving
descents) to improve your chances.

While I agree that electronic assistance can be a very useful secondary
device for picking up the odd bit of traffic you've not eyeballed, it's
essential to remember that looking out of the window is rule number one, and
if you'd descended onto the top of this other aircraft, it'd have been your
fault. The other thing to remember, of course, is that TIS relies on the
other aircraft giving a correct altitude - which in the aircraft I fly
relies on the the pilot having the correct altimiter setting.

D.