Once, long long ago, when I was a low time private pilot in the UK, returning from a successful trip from the south coast, feeling pretty good, keeping my navigation log up to date, making sure I was avoiding restricted areas,

Whoaa! What was that!

A purple coloured aircraft, twin engined, diving and turning to my left, a near-miss (or near hit as I prefer to call them, after all we did miss). Didn’t see him, until too late, clearly head on slightly lower and much faster than me. Maybe 200 ft laterally and 50ft below. Too close for me. What did I do wrong? Head in the cockpit too long? No TCAS in my little Cessna 152?

I spent a lot of time looking into what could and should be done after that. Let’s start with the obvious:

1) Keep your lookout going. Even in the circuit, I know it’s a busy time but some people fly right through circuits oblivious of their existence. Day-time VFR lookout is simple: small segments of the sky say 10 degrees, concentrate on that sector (you’re looking for any objects that tickles your eye-balls), then move on to the next 10 degrees. As one of my first instructors said to me

“The plane that kills you comes from the side”. He was a bit inscrutable, but I think he meant make sure your scan covers from 8 O’clock all the way to 4 O’clock, not just ahead and 30 degrees to the side.

2) Don’t got heads-in. Every task in the cockpit can be broken down into small chunks giving you the opportunity to look out again. Even dialing frequency numbers can be broken down

One- Look – One – Look – Nine – Decimal Nine – Look. You get the idea.

3) CRM is crucial. If you have an instructor on board, make sure they are looking as well, they probably are anyway. If you have a passenger on board, pay them to spot small aircraft at your level. Playing games on the Nintendo DS while you fly is a waste of two good Mark 1 eyeballs. Pay them one pound for every aircraft they see.

4) Get a traffic service, ATC load dependent of course, but sometimes a big distraction in crowded areas:

“Traffic 2 O’clock , three miles, no height”, usually means theres an airbus 10,000 feet above you, still it’s better than not having the service.

5) Position reporting by you is especially important at lightly controlled airfields, such as in the USA where CTAF frequencies are for exactly this purpose.

“Lakeland traffic, Cessna 3421 Zulu, down-wind for runway 21, Lakeland traffic”.

This tactic may not be much use if someone is just bombing through a zone, because they are probably not even on the right frequency.

6) Get TCAS. There are some very good cheap models out there, that warn you of conflicts. I like the G1000 warning system, where you can overlay the traffic on your moving map. This is a great system. I once ‘watched’ a conflicting aircraft fly below me and across. I knew exactly where it was (the TCAS told me) but I never once saw it. These systems are great.

7) Get an Instrument rating. This one obviously is a little harder to achieve, but the idea once you have an IFR flight plan someone else is also responsible for keeping legally mandated minimum distances from you to the next plane.

Don’t fly at the same height as everybody else. Choose an odd altitude, Why fly at 2,000′ when you can fly at 2,150′ feet? If you look at the density of traffic at different altitudes in a VFR environment, you see a huge number of aircraft at 2,000′ . Look slightly higher, the density of traffic is much lower. Again this doesn’t help with circuit blasting.

9) Finally, I would recommend you read the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) or look at their website. It details events that were near hits and describes in detail what everybody did, when they did it. If you understand these events you can get into the mind set to avoid these events.  

Finally I would say collision avoidance is a major task of the VFR pilot, especially single pilot operation. As a low time pilot you may not have the capacity to keep your look out going all the time, but as you build up more experience more time can be allocated to lookout. As my instrument instructor said:

“If your’e doing nothing on a single-pilot operation flight, you should feel guilty, look out, check something, what possible conflicts could there be”.

None of the above are foolproof of course, but lowering your chances of that scary moment happening are what it’s all about.

It was a great privilege to be a part of the GASCo visit, to LATCC organised by John Thorpe. It was especially interesting to see the D & D cell that I used many years ago. The technology that is used although dated is truly impressive. Even before you finish saying MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY, your position will have been triangulated and plotted on a large board at the cell. The 24 hour coverage provided by the staff is truly professional and amazingly effective. The staff, friendly relaxed and professional will know what you want even before you’ve finished your transmission. During my trip to Earls Colne and my short conversation with D & D, (I wasn’t very far off track), they were so relaxed on the R/T that I’d imagined that they wore cowboy boots and hats.

Just mozy on over to 315 degrees and you should see Earls Colne right on the nose pardner

That vision was shattered today, but the friendliness and the helpful atmosphere were there in bucket loads. Just a few tips that they asked me to pass on.

1. Keep a reasonable height, DF gets more difficult the lower you get. 2500 is good. 1000 – 1500 very difficult.

2. 7700 – Emergency, 7600 – Radio Failure, 7500 – Hijack. Use them you’ll get D & D’s attention.

3. Careful changing to 7000 (It’s easy to go through 7700).

4. Close your VFR or IFR Flight plans.

5. In case of need call early.

Finally D & D like to be thanked. If you do use the service, which is free, phone them after the flight and let them know of your appreciation, and if you can afford it send beer or wine! The address is D & D Cell, Porters Way, West Drayton, Middlesex. Thanks Pardner !

Why you might ask with the poor behaviour do I love my ADF? Simple. I mean because it’s simple to understand, it’s simple to use (maybe not simple to use well), but simple nonetheless. It can be explained so easily. “A man stands in a field with a light bulb, and you go towards the light bulb”.  Now the light bulb is an NDB and you can ‘see’ it with you ADF. Just follow the needle. Introduce wind correction later and heads and tails of the needle for tracking away and little dogs raising their tails etc. But the essense of it is to follow the yellow arrow. Of course GPS’s have made thing even simpler now, but checking the RAIM on G1000 requires some time and effort to find in the menus (OK only a small gripe). The only thing you have to do for an ADF is to have power, and listen to the identifier continuously.

Little know facts about NDBs. “W” indicates that no voice transmissions are made on the beacon, and remember that if you can hear the local radio station instead of the identifier you’d better use something else. The next time you need to practise some instrument flying, ask you instructor where you could try some tracking TO and FROM an NDB with wind correction. You’ll thank me for it.

 TV celebrities like Jeremy Clarkson refer to light aircraft as Flying Washing  machines. It gives the public the wrong impression and generally they don’t  have the right impression anyway. You’ve been flying for too long to realise but  your passengers, especially the new ones are full of questions and worries. Not  wanting to appear ignorant they’ll sit quietly and worry throughout the flight  that the flashing Transponder light is some indication of imminent disaster!  This is why I emphasise the use of SAFETY (See a previous HTGYFF).

Y is for  Questions. Try not to make the passenger or passengers feel they are being  foolish about asking what may appear to be obvious things to you.  I already have a very long list, and  suggested explanations and comforting words for would be passengers. My  favourite is :

Where’s the  parachute?

Hmmm.  Nervous passenger methinks. Still at least they’re asking. Try to use calming  words in your answers like Glide, precautionary landing etc.

Good Answer: We  don’t need one, unless we want to go parachuting and I can’t understand why  anyone would want to leave a perfectly functional airplane. In case we have to  land unexpectedly we’ll glide to the nearest convenient place. We have more  choices that those big lumbering jets!

Bad Answer: No point  in having one if the wings fell off we’d be gonners anyway.

Will ATC be able  to hear me when I speak?

Comment: This is a  popular one. If you have a very quiet passenger it’ll be because they think  every word they utter will be heard and recorded by Air Traffic Control. You  need to explain carefully that you have to push a special button to talk to ATC.  In some aircraft you can isolate the co-pilot from ATC as well so that they  can’t even hear ATC. Decide on a hand signal to keep them quiet while you are  talking. Chat to them at other times to get them relaxed. Obviously not during  busy times.

Good Answer: No. But  I’ll be able to hear you when you speak. So if I need to speak to ATC I’ll let  you know before hand so we don’t have both of you speaking to me at the same  time. If you need to say anything just speak normally and I’ll hear you. It wont  be a problem.

Bad Answer: Doubt  it. They never hear me when I speak. Sometimes I can’t even get a word in  edge-wise

What happens if  the engine stops? After all Jumbos have four engines?

Comment: Another  nervous passenger. No sooner are they on board they’re imagining falling out of  the sky. 

Good Answer: It is  very unlikely to happen. The engine is inspected frequently as are all the  systems on this aircraft. Even if it did happen we’d land somewhere convenient.  This aircraft can land almost anywhere without any fuss and we practise doing  that all the time.

Bad Answer: God, I  hope that doesn’t happen. If we crash make sure to pull me from the wreckage  before the fire starts.

Why doesn’t the  undercarriage come up?

Comment: A more  sensible question.

Good Answer: In this  aircraft there’s very little loss in speed due to the gear being down. Some  bigger light aircraft do have retractable gear, but not this  one.

Bad Answer: Good  thing if you ask me. I’d forget to lower it anyway. Frankly I’d forget my head  if it wasn’t screwed on to my body.

Where are the  toilets?

Comment: If they’re  asking about toilets make sure they understand that they need to visit ground  facilities before the flight.

Good Answer:  Unfortunately there are none on this aircraft, but if you need to go now, pop  into the terminal building / Club building and do what you need to do. The  flight will only be (insert number of hours here). 

Bad answer: Let me  put it this way. Is that an expensive suit you’re wearing?

Do we get  peanuts?

Comment: This is a  good sign. The passenger is joking (I think). This might be time for little  levity.

Good answer: Sorry I  forgot the peanuts. I’ll make sure to pack some the next  time.

Bad answer: Sure,  but you’ll have to put on a short skirt and a silly hat to dish them  out.

Where are the  oxygen masks?

Comment: Another  sensible question. After all a passenger is not likely to know at what altitude  you need oxygen.

Good Answer: Just  breathe normally. We don’t need oxygen we will not be going up that  high.

Bad Answer: You  don’t get one. You’re only the passenger. You’re what they call acceptable  losses. Only kidding!

Finally, if you’ve  had some really good questions that made you laugh, or took you aback then  please e-mail them to me we could all learn from each  other!

The lights for me where very bright. They were angled for large aircraft and designed to be seen from a great distance.

“These lights are pretty bright”, I said.

“Oh! We can’t have that”, said the instructor (also a Virgin Atlantic Captain). Rather than clicking the mike 3 (low) or 5 (medium) times to reduce the intensity, he made a quick call to ATC

“Tower, could you turn off the lights for the approach”.

Imagine my amasement. Suddenly the lights went out. Yet I could easily see enough to land, in fact it was great landing. The light from the large terminal building and associated lights were more than enough to make the required judgements. Another thing I learned about lights that day. Taxi-ing back to the ramp, I got a bit close to one of the taxi way edge lights.

“Keep well clear of the edge lights, they cost £500 each”.

“I was back on the centre line before you could say, Too expensive”.

So next time you’re out flying make sure to have enough light to get the job done, don’t activate the lights too soon or you’ll get a surprise on short final!

“Keep your lookout going”

I had gone too much heads-in the cockpit. A better procedure is set a letter, back to the lookout. Set a letter back to the lookout. He was of course right. The more complicated the GPS the more you can get sucked in. This is especially true with something like the G1000 but simpler GPS and moving map units will have the same effect. They are not computer games that you can get engrossed in! Make the smallest sensible unit of adjustment and keep your lookout going.

Now that Summer is truly upon us we need to keep a keen eye out for all those other pilots that have been waiting for the good weather. Don’t be one of those keeping your head in the cockpit!