Cloud Flying

T o d d P a t t i s t wrote:
I would venture that the captain on that AA
flights' first thought would be, "we're turning now", then he would ask
the center about the accuracy of the gliders' altimeter.

Why would he question that when he'd just received a report
that the glider was at FL 190 and presumably on an IFR
flight plan and in communication with ATC?

Todd, welcome aboard. Thanks for your input. To answer your question I would have to say, given the altitudes in Chriss' scenario, there would be cause for alarm due to the small difference in the altitudes, and closure rate. Not knowing the accuracy of the story gliders altimeter, I would, if I were driving the large aircraft tell myself that a thirty degree turn off this heading won't hurt anyone .

Is the glider pilot flying off of an altimeter set at zero, or is he
flying GPS altitude, and if he is flying with his altimeter set at
29.92, how far out of tune is his old altimeter that may not have seen
the bench since it was new? Don't know, food for thought, I hope. What
I do know is that altimeters that have not been bench checked in a
while can be waaay off.

I just came from our club, where I talked with one of our members who
has a beautifully installed xponder, with encoder, and all the paper
work to go with it. We also looked at the poh list of approved
equipment.

Going back to Chris's scenario, if the controller had told me that the
glider traffic had an encoder and they had verified his altitude during
his climb, I might feel better, but I cant see this guy, unless he has
a xponder, so I'm still going to make a nice little deviation around
the traffic. I think the more realistic scenario is yours where your in
a window and the possibility of ever coming closer than five miles is
far fetched.

Todd, with regard to your flight where you had 10,000ft separation,
I'm guessing you were flying in a wave window. Would also like to ask
if you use a transponder. Thanks for your input.



--