Does head on traffic shake you up

I read somewhere that on there are sometimes false positive traffic alerts on these systems. I think they call them ghosts. So maybe the reason that you never see the traffic is because it doesn't exist.
 
orange said:
I read somewhere that on there are sometimes false positive traffic alerts on these systems. I think they call them ghosts. So maybe the reason that you never see the traffic is because it doesn't exist.
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Usually those arent moving consistently over any distance. I've seen a couple on the fish finder and they tend to appear then disappear as opposed to moving consistently at a given altitude for a while.
 
orange said:
I read somewhere that on there are sometimes false positive traffic alerts on these systems. I think they call them ghosts. So maybe the reason that you never see the traffic is because it doesn't exist.
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TIS will do that, especially if you're turning a lot.

It SUCKS to get a traffic call at 5 O'clock same altitude, right on your butt, in the middle of a steep turn.
 
During my initial I was training out of KCDW and had a Mooney out of Lincoln Park rocket towards me climbing from my 3 o'clock. Caught a flicker of movement to my right and there he was. I was close enough to make out the style of sunglasses the pilot was wearing. I'd say, he passed about 100 feet underneath as our paths converged. I had maybe 15 hours at the time.
 
Closest I remember seeing another plane was an almost t-bone. My CFI and I were in the clouds doing some IMC work. What we didn't know was the cloud shelf we were in stopped shortly ahead of us and things were VMC beyond that. There was another a/c, Bonanza maybe, travelling west to east and we were heading approximately north. ATC came on and said, "TRAFFIC ALERT, MAKE IMMEDIATE LEFT TURN!" We did, and when we did we popped out of the clouds, saw that guy and what he was wearing flash past, then we got right back into the clouds again. Horizontal cloud clearances matter.
 
I'm not unduly concerned about the head-on traffic, because the visibility straight ahead is usually the best in the light singles that I fly. I never was in a situation where the head-on traffic presented a realistic hazard. It's trivial to avoid them. Approaching from a blind spot, however, can be nasty. I remember tooling once towards Denver in a Remos, when Colorado Springs Approach radioed me with an urgent instruction to descend. I was inside Charlie, fortunately, so they provided radar separation. As I started diving, a Cessna 210 flew right over me from right rear quarter towards 10 or 11 o'clock. I could see rivets on his belly, although I do not remember if I heard his engine. Honestly, head-on has nothing upon people pouncing from your blind spots.

Speaking of Arizona, the last mid-air near DVT that I remember involved a training flight that descended rapidly. This is a rather common occurrence. Airframe shadows on most airplanes are disadvantageous for looking up and down, scan away from horizon is deficient in most pilots. Maybe even impossible. So, rapid altitude changes concern me. I try to avoid places where I know students congregate.
 
My first "close" one was a week or so ago, when overhead KTCY I could easily read the Tail # of the twin Grumman flying left to right from me.
 
I'd like to buy a comma, Pat.​
 
Norman said:
After reading this thread I think I'd rather see head on traffic in the air rather than on the highway. In the air you have a chance of getting out of the way. Not always that lucky on the road.
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Yup. I attended a funeral this last weekend for our good friend who was killed in a head on collision by a drunk driver. There are risks in all we do, at least in the air, I can create more separation from the ground based whacks.


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I wrote previously about the fellow in western n.y. State, on his way home from church to fly his stearman, killed head on by a woman, ( she died too , two children survived , in back seat. (on a curve when she lost control while on a cell phone. 2 years ago) last week, six aircraft took off from western n.y. State airport, to fly to st. Mary's penna. for breakfast. A Cherokee overtook a Cessna 120 on climb out, cut the tail off, 3 died. Tough to see thru the bottom of an airplane no matter how hard you look.
 
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I've been terrified once or twice by a simple bug on the windshield splattered in a certain way that looked like a head on. Also, almost hit twice in patterns by nor ado people entering or in the pattern . Most pattern accidents occur this way, usually on final, one aircraft overtaking another.
 
I've missed other aircraft many times and been very worried in spite of the fact I really looked carefully.
 
What's the big deal?!

pilots.jpg
 
Coming back from a very late XC, I was on left base and saw a landing light on right base. Looked like I had time, but I was getting a little antsy. Then I realized it was Jupiter.
 
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