On Monday, April 30, 2018 at 3:07:54 PM UTC-7, Paul Agnew wrote:
What ever happened to See and Avoid? Is ignorance bliss in aviation, too?

I flew three days last week in my ASW-19 and encountered a Piper Lance that wanted to circle around me as I was in a thermal - forcing me to abandon some good lift in order to keep him in sight, two corporate jets passing below me and not on the local airways or approach corridors, a Piper that flew right by me and never made any adjustment to his course, several GA airplanes and a Robinson blowing through the local traffic pattern without so much as a radio call, and one Piper blindly blasting right through the center of a cu I was working next to - presumably so he could log .1 instrument time. I seriously doubt the cloudbuster was on an instrument flight plan because we have verified that we are clearly visible as primary targets on ATC radar and they probably would have alerted them to my location.

In the past year, on behalf of our club, I've been working behind the scenes on small changes that could have significant effects on local GA awareness of our glider ops. It took eight months to process, but I was able to get the glider-in-tow symbol added to the local sectional and the AFD updated in hopes that it would remind some percentage of pilots to look out for us. We have a great relationship with the local tower and they put a message about glider ops on ATIS whenever we are up. The local flight schools are also all aware of our location and operations. With everything we've done to make ourselves conspicuous, the weekend warriors and corporate pilots appear to be flying heads down. It's time for another information campaign and, perhaps, some posters for the FBO/Flightschool bulletin boards. That, and I plan to leverage the TCAS system the corporate jets all have via my own transponder.

It's a target rich environment out there and I've been waiting to install a Mode-C transponder during my upcoming annual. The time has come and now I find I need to educate myself on Flarm and other collision alert options. Balancing expense and safety is always a delicate exercise, and the cost of a Flarm doesn't help that decision.

Paul A.

Paul, I am glad you finally decided to install a transponder. You described more encounters in 3 days than I had in 20 years and over 6000 hours of flying in some of the most busiest areas (Bay Area and Reno area). Could it be because I am flying with transponders since day one, or just a coincidence?
See and avoid barely works, and mostly in traffic patterns. Otherwise, you only see the traffic which is not on collision course.


To Greg, are you for real? If so, all I can do is facepalm and hoping that our flights will never cross paths.

Ramy