Nearly Mid-Air Collision at Estrella

(Terry Claussen) wrote in message m...
A lousy end to what was a beautiful day of soaring, thanks to the USMC
and my own lack of vigilance.

Some thoughts on this incident (and comments in subsequent posts):

If I hear a powerplane (any kind!) while cruising and don't see him -
My response is to IMMEDIATELY throw up a wing and pull a hard S-turn.
This does two things: It lets you check behind, where your greatest
threat is, and throws a much bigger visual target for the approaching
plane to see. And he is close enough to hear, he will probably see
you. This works very well for military jets, not so well for
airliners and bugsmashers, from personal experience.

At the altitudes we usually fly, fighters will usually be transiting
at relatively low speed (about 300 knots, perhaps 350). Down low (or
high), they will be going a lot faster (450 - 600 knots) but if you
are that low you are about to landout! But even at 350 knots, you
have time to hear and react to the sound of the approaching fighters
(this from personal experience).

Note I say "fighters" - there will almost always be at least two of
them, maybe more, so do not stop searching after finding one figher -
it's the wingman, not the flight lead, that is most likely to hit you
(because his attention is divided between maintaining formation and
clearing his flightpath). In the US most fighters will be either in
relatively close formation (easy to see both) or spread out 1 to 2
miles line abreast (hard to see both). And it probably isn't the one
that is closest to hitting you that you are going to pick up first,
since he will be closest to nose-on. The good news is that if either
figher sees you, he will warn the other to avoid you. Fighter pilots
look out the window a lot, it is actually something they train at all
the time. Don't count on that from airline or lightplane pilots,
though!

Airliners descending to land are a problem, since you absolutely
cannot hear them - you have to pick them up (since they will probably
not maneuver unless they get really exited!). Of course, they are big
and brightly painted, so are a bit easier to see.

When cruising, obviously it is most dangerous at the VFR hemispheric
altitudes, but at least you should have an idea where the threat is
coming from.

Finally, in the US our transition altitude is 18000ft, and since most
of us use the field elevation to set the altimeter (instead of calling
FSS), there is going to be some altimeter discrepancies - so you
really can't count on using altitude for close deconfliction.


Kirk