You're right to be concerned. You're wrong to be obsessive about it. The
awareness problem associated with flying is that over concentration on any
single area opens a huge door to potential problems in other areas. In other
words, there is just no room in flying for a mental state that involves an
overpowering obsession with any single factor involved with that flying.
The ideal mental state for a pilot is one of TOTAL awareness. We call it
"situational awareness".
As for your specific "problem", I'll assume you know how to scan for
traffic, and know the blind spots of the specific aircraft you are flying so
I'll simply leave it on the "total awareness" point and hope you see the
importance implied.
Best of luck to you.
Dudley Henriques


"Frode Berg" wrote in message
...
Hi!

I am a PPL, and co owner of an Arrow.

I have just over 250 hours total time, vfr only, and lot's of cross
country.

However, during the past 3 years or so, I've constantly been overly alert
towards the possibility of hitting something in the sky.

I know the sky is big, and probability is not very high, but still it nags
me to the point that I feel I would be a better pilot if I could just let
it go. Off course still keeping a proper scan etc.

Now, I'm constantly looking for traffic, instead of relaxing, calmly doing
the checklists etc.

I bought one of the passive collision devices, and every time something
shows up there, I try to figure out where it is, especially if I get a
reading around 1-2 nm away within +-500 feet. I know these things are not
excactly dead on most of the time, but they do tell you somethings out
there.

Maybe it's just adding to my nercousness not seeing most of the traffic it
detects.

Anyone else had "mid-air-ities" and how did you deal with it?

Before I started on my PPL, I witnessed a midair from a cruise ship in
France. Maybe that's why I'm a bit obsessed with it.

I mean, what are the probabilities of hitting someone?

How easy is it really to see another AC once it get's closer than normal?
I'm thinking if it getæs real close it will be rather obvious, since most
traffic I'm able to spot now is 1-2 nm away, and look really small and
hard to see.


Thanks for any input on this.

Frode