Scared of mid-airs

On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 20:36:47 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 19:49:59 GMT, Ed Rasimus
wrote in
::

But, the point that we are beating here is that see-and-avoid is the
basic responsibility of all players all of the time.

That is true with the obvious exception of operations in IMC.

No, even in IMC, if I am operating an aircraft with radar (or other
sensors) and I detect a threat of collision it would still be my
responsibility to deviate and avoid the collision, even without ATC
approval.

ATC is NOT magic. During the PATCO strike (Reagan years), when the
controllers walked off the job, we stood down at Holloman for two
days. At that point we could no longer suspend our training operations
and we resumed flying. We filed flight plans VFR/IFR with MARSA
(military assumes responsibility for separation of aircraft). In areas
that were not positive control, we remained VMC. In positive control
airspace, we proceeded IMC when necessary and used own radars and
military RAPCON coverage to deconflict--which really wasn't necessary
since no GA aircraft would be transiting in APC under IMC without
ATC--would they?

When controllers returned to work, they had learned that they were not
essential to our operations and we had a year or two of
non-interference from Big Brother as we went about our business. (Oh,
there were no mid-airs of any kind.)

High speed aircraft have high agility, low speed aircraft have lots of time to
look,

Low-speed aircraft have the same amount of time to spot a high-speed
aircraft before colliding with it as the high-speed aircraft has: the
amount of time it takes for the two aircraft to reach each other.
Pilots of high-speed aircraft must look much farther ahead than pilots
of low-speed aircraft..

That's ludicrous. You can look as far ahead as I can. Both high speed
and low speed aviators have the same degree of visual acuity and the
same obligation to maintain the highest possible level of situational
awareness.

but regardless of your speed you keep the front of your airplane
cleared using all of the tools available to you.

High-speed aircraft need only scan a much smaller angle of airspace in
front of them than slow speed aircraft.

Bull**** again. In fact, we operate with greater responsibility for
look-out for mutual support than GA operators. That's the price of
being a weapon system. There are people out there trying to kill you.

Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com