Scared of mid-airs

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

My instructor always told me to look for an object in the sky that does
not appear to be moving. If you see that, do something immediately,
because you are dead-on a collision course.

I've had what I consider close calls over the years, the most memorable
being when I saw an SR-22 dart across my field of view from right to
left very quickly. I immediately banked over to the right at a 45
degree angle and pulled hard to insure we'd pass behind the guy - he
appeared to do absolutely nothing.

Basically my theory is that mid-airs can only happen when both pilots
are inattentive, or neither can see the other due to a perfect
alignment obscuring both planes behind wings, struts, or what have you.
Since you seem to be overly cautious, I'd suggest that you have nothing
to worry about... but don't stop being as vigilant as you are - that's
exactly how I think one should approach flying... always be thinking
ahead of the plane, and that includes keeping up your visual see &
avoid scan.

--
Guy

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

[...] I feel I would be a better pilot if I could just let it go

Nope. If you "just let it go" you would be an accident waiting to
happen. While you are vigilant, you are doing exactly what you should
be doing.

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.

These devices are helpful, but one must be careful that one doesn't keep
their eyeballs inside the cockpit looking at the device instead of
outside. Like you, I don't always see the depicted traffic. Airplanes
look pretty small at two miles, and can easily get lost in ground
clutter or blue sky. They are probably not a collision hazard at that
distance if their track and yours diverge (though they could change
course). At two miles, unless they are moving straight towards you,
there is plenty of time to see and avoid.

I mean, what are the probabilities of hitting someone?

In the pattern, it's certainly a concern. Lots of people entering and
leaving, a few on odd courses, and some with no radio (or worse, bad
position reports). Eyeballs are put to maximum use. Over VORs is
another congestion point, and low down near airports is another hot
spot. In the mid thousands in cruise, it is far less likely to bump
into surprise aluminum, but it can happen.

Don't let the =fear= rule you, but do keep the =attention= outside
looking for traffic and keeping up with your position. You'll get to
relax and enjoy the view with more time in the air.

Jose




--
The price of freedom is... well... freedom.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Frode Berg wrote:

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

There's no such thing as being "overly" alert. The alerter, the better
:-). Sans drugs, of course :-).

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

Looking for traffic should be part of your normal scan - in VFR flight,
95% of your attention should be outside the cockpit anyway. Nothing
wrong with that.

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

My wife does - she spends 80% of the time in the plane with me worrying
about hitting the 747 she can see 25 miles away, at 25K ft. I've gotten
her to worry a lot less, but she really doesn't like flying over the LA
basin. If a plane passes by 1 mile away, 500 ft. above us, she's very
concerned. As a long-time glider pilot, used to flying with 4 other 60
ft. wingspan gliders in a 300 ft. diameter thermal, I don't worry about
it much, especially if I can see them.

We used to fly in the Boston/NY corridor all the time - we'd rarely get
within 1-2 miles of anyone. Just the familiarity, and seeing that you
DON'T have near hits on a regular basis helped her.

I mean, what are the probabilities of hitting someone?

Very small. Read the Nall Report at:

http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/nall.html

Midair collisions are a minuscule percentage of total fatal accidents,
and almost all of them happen in the pattern. There were 6 fatal
midairs in 2005, out of 290 fatal accidents. That's 2% of the total
fatals. There were 10 total midairs, out of 1413 total accidents -
that's 0.7% of all accidents.

Showing these statistics to my wife helped her become less nervous about
midairs.

Worry about CFIT or running out of gas, or some of the other stuff that
the Nall Report points out as being far more likely to bite you (most of
which are judgement errors).

--
Marc J. Zeitlin
http://www.cozybuilders.org/
Copyright (c) 2006

Marc J. Zeitlin wrote:
Anyone else had "mid-air-ities" and how did you deal with it?

My wife does - she spends 80% of the time in the plane with me worrying
about hitting the 747 she can see 25 miles away, at 25K ft. I've gotten
her to worry a lot less, but she really doesn't like flying over the LA
basin. If a plane passes by 1 mile away, 500 ft. above us, she's very
concerned.


I don't know how to break a pilot of the worry but I sure know how to divert a
passenger's attention back inside. Start tapping the oil pressure gauge and
start muttering to yourself until you have her attention. When she asks what's
wrong, tell her you thought you saw the oil pressure gauge flicker out of the
corner of your eye... just can't be sure.

I had an overly talkative passenger once that I shut up completely with that
little technique. Didn't hear another word.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

On 4 May 2006 16:45:50 -0700, "Guy Elden Jr"
wrote in .com::

Basically my theory is that mid-airs can only happen when both pilots
are inattentive, or neither can see the other due to a perfect
alignment obscuring both planes behind wings, struts, or what have you.

Of course that theory fails to consider the closing speed of the
aircraft.

There was a military/civil MAC on November 16, 2000 in which an F-16
at about 500 knots impacted a C-172. Although the C-172 pilot was
banked 45 degrees away from the F-16 at the time of impact, it only
took one pilot not seeing the other to cause this MAC.

You can read about it he http://tinyurl.com/jzxhk

The F-16 pilot ejected, and the ATP rated Cessna pilot and his
aircraft were scattered over 4 acres of golf course. The flight lead
received a verbal reprimand despite violating several regulations such
as speeding through congested Class B and C terminal airspace without
a clearance, ...

Frode Berg wrote:
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 letit
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


While mid-air collisions are rare, they have a high probability of
being fatal. A healthy fear of mid-airs is a good thing, but not to the
extent of becoming paranoid.

Read the Nall report. It shows that most mid-airs occur near airports.
One should be able to compute the probability of a midair based on
traffic volume, but a better indicator is the NTSB reports. Midairs
during enroute are extremely rare.

If you rank all the things that can go wrong during flight, I suspect
enroute mid-air will rank lower compared to weather, equipment
problems, engine trouble, fuel starvation etc.. It's not to say that
collision avoidance should be taken lightly, but don't ignore the other
factors that may have higher risk factors.

Utilize ATC as much as possible. Although they do not separate VFR
traffic, they do issue advisories if another aircraft gets too close to
you.

"Frode Berg" wrote in message
...
[...]
Anyone else had "mid-air-ities" and how did you deal with it?

Nope, never had an issue with that particular phobia. That said, IMHO
that's what it is. A phobia. Every pilot should be aware of, and take
steps to avoid, the hazard of running into other aircraft. But for that
concern to be at the forefront of your piloting concerns isn't rational.

It's not my place to offer psychological advice here (or anywhere else, for
that matter). But I can tell you that when I run into something like this
(and I have in other areas), it does take a little doing, but by reminding
myself of the irrational nature of my fears, I manage to get my perspective
back on track.

Whether this will work for you, I don't know. I do know you can't go flying
around worrying about running into other aircraft all the time. Don't
forget about the risk, but it doesn't deserve top-billing at the expense of
other piloting duties.

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.

That certainly could be the catalyst. I saw a mid-air crash at the Reno air
races one year, and it freaked me out for a little while. Oddly enough, not
with respect to mid-airs, but just with respect to the question of crashing
generally.

I mean, what are the probabilities of hitting someone?

Depends on where you are. In cruise flight out in the middle of nowhere,
pretty slim. On an airway, somewhat higher (especially if you're climbing
or descending or are near an airport where someone else might be). Over a
nav aid, even a little higher. In the traffic pattern, a little higher
again. The risk warrants careful attention to what's going on around you.

But all in all, pilots do a pretty good job of avoiding each other.
Mid-airs constitute a pretty small portion of all accidents. I don't know
what the actual probability is, but the odds of being in ANY accident are
reasonably low, and the odds of being in a mid-air are a fraction of that.

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.

You're not going to want to hear this. Based on size, another aircraft
should be relatively easy to see when it's "closer than normal" (whatever
that means ). However, an aircraft on a collision course with you will
appear to be motionless, and unless you are looking directly at it, you're
unlikely to notice it. Human vision is hard-wired to do a better job at
detecting moving objects.

The easiest aircraft to see are the ones you don't have to worry about.

Just make sure you spend an appropriate amount of time looking outside, and
you pause for long enough looking at each "slice" of the sky around you.
Don't forget that your airplane likely has blind spots, and that it's
helpful to move your head around in the cockpit, to allow yourself to check
behind structural parts of the cockpit. Allowing yourself the opportunity
to look directly at any aircraft that are a threat is the best way to ensure
that you will see them, and that you will avoid them.

Pete

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

We all treat risk differently, and many of us have little foibles and
phobias. I've found that we also go through "phases" where different
things bother us differently.

I've gone through times when the risk of flying was more worrisome than
others. Nothing specific, like you're going through, but more of a
generalized concern (not quite "fear") about flying in general. When
this happened I found myself hyper-alert, gripping the yoke a bit too
hard, and, in general, not enjoying myself much.

That phase passed -- and came back, and passed again -- over time.
I've not found a correlation between anything in my life or flying to
match up with this hyper-alertness, but it's annoying. However, it may
even be healthy.

Mary is going through a phase right now where turbulence really bothers
her. When we're getting bounced around, especially on climb-out, she's
white-knuckled all the way, and trying to get her to relax only
aggravates the situation.

She *knows* we're not going to fall out of the sky -- just like you
*know* you're not about to hit anyone -- but that doesn't matter much.
Unfortunately, things like this don't always follow logic. You just
have to work your way through them.

And you will.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

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