On Aug 30, 3:43*pm, "Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe" The Sea Hawk @See My
Sig.com wrote:
"a" wrote in message

...

A recent thread reminded me it might be worth discussing an personal
flying practice. * When en route, as a way of reducing the likelihood
of a midair by about a binary order of magnitude (that's a factor of
two for the non mathematically inclined) I *fly the nominal altitude
less 100 feet VFR, or the assigned altitude less 50 feet IFR. The idea
of course is if the unseen/unreported *converging traffic is at the
correct altitude or on the high side of it, we'd miss. I chose lower
because I fly a low winged airplane, and of course I would agree this
makes a very unlikely event only slightly less likely. On the other
hand, I don't see that I've significantly increased other in-flight
risks much by doing this, What (if anything) might I have overlooked?
To the wiseguys, yes I in fact do hold altitude pretty closely when
flying.

Well, it's not a new idea. And, if you convince everyone to do it, then the
potential benifit is lost. So it would be best to not tell anyone, eh?

Plus per 14 CFR 91.159:
"each person operating an aircraft under VFR in level cruising flight more
than 3,000 feet above the surface shall maintain the appropriate altitude
or flight level prescribed below"

What you might have overlooked is that it doesn't say "maintain an altitude
minus 100 feet". If you think it's a good idea, fine - go for it. *But it
would be best not to tell anyone just in case someone has a bone to pick,
eh?


He could reduce the risk even more by not getting off the ground.
I must reduce my chances of a midair to near zero by never being able
to hold any altitude perfectly constant ;-)
Well except for when I'm doing the car thing... LOL