ADS-B IN….and TCAS
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2022 10:05 pm
On the way home from convention we passed thru Mansfield LA and visited briefly with Gary (Ol’ Gar) and Deanna Hanson while we ate our Subway sandwhiches. Then bought fuel and headed home on the final leg of our journey. Here’s what happened on that leg:
After departing Mansfield we cruised at 8500’ toward home… with mostly clear skies…. until I noticed that some airplane (N5801N) was gaining on us from 6-o’clock…. in his descent from 10K. I watched as N5801N continued to descend and creep up on us from behind on a slow descent…
When he was about 3 miles behind me he slowed his descent to level off at our altitude (8500’) and still gaining on me… I asked HOU CTR if they were talking to him…they replied “NO” and frankly, I was surprised HOU CTR hadn’t mentioned him to me as “traffic” (…don’t know what good flight following is if they don’t tell you about traffic…DOH!…)
The controller called N5801N a couple times without a response…now I observe him still closing-in on me at my altitude…(the ADS-B In shows him at “+00” which is my same altitude, neither above nor below)… so I decided to change heading. ATC suggested ten degrees Right for me… I said “No…I’ll turn 90-Left!” which I did. A half minute later I took the screen-shot of us having turned South and the 6-o’clock traffic continuing on-course…where he would have potentially hit us.
After he passed I waited a few miles then resumed our course paralleling his towards our home. I observed on the ADS-B that he landed at Georgetown (GTU).
Today I researched the registration to find it is a Mooney (owned by a LLC) and called GTU to locate the owner…the city FBO was reluctant to give me his name but agreed to give him my number to call.
He did call me a few minutes ago and we talked. He was guarded at first, until I reassured him I only wanted us both to learn from this. He claimed to have ADS-B based TCAS but never rec’d a warning. He said he saw me only after I turned South when I was about a mile to his left….and he thought nothing much about it.
I informed him we might have traded paint if I’d not turned-away. It was a good conversation and learning experience I think. I suggested he use flight-following since his TCAS doesn’t work well. I informed him that MY Fly-Q traffic-alert gave me a 15 mile warning** of him…and that in less than 3 minutes I had to take the evasive action. Hopefully he learned something from this. I certainly did.
Here’s the screen shots of the near-miss.(Click on the pic for an ENLARGEMENT) We are the small airplane icon…the closing traffic is identified by N5801N…The Magenta-Line was my flight-plan-course-line….it appears that we might have collided in about 30-secs if we’d not changed heading:
** Notice the “15 nm Traffic Circle surrounding my own airplane-icon. This Fly-Q program feature presents “threat” aircraft within that circle, which is a cylinder/column of airspace 15nm in radius and 3,500’ above/below, and prevents non-threat aircraft from being displayed, thereby “de-cluttering” the depiction…. unless a “threat” aircraft comes within that surrounding airspace. A “threat” aircraft is displayed in black-and-white if more than approx 5 miles… Amber in color if less than 5 miles…and Red if imminent. When he displayed in Amber I made an immediate left-turn.
In retrospect, I suppose a 45-degree turn would have placed more distance between us than a 90-turn did, since we were traveling same-direction. Of course, it’s good to remember that if You ever experience a near-collision that the fastest way to avoid a collision is that a change of ALTITUDE is usually more effective than a change of course. I chose the course-change instead of altitude-change because as he was descending from above-and-behind….he was both above AND below me during that time. An altitude change by me could have either accelerated our closure…or prolonged it.
After departing Mansfield we cruised at 8500’ toward home… with mostly clear skies…. until I noticed that some airplane (N5801N) was gaining on us from 6-o’clock…. in his descent from 10K. I watched as N5801N continued to descend and creep up on us from behind on a slow descent…
When he was about 3 miles behind me he slowed his descent to level off at our altitude (8500’) and still gaining on me… I asked HOU CTR if they were talking to him…they replied “NO” and frankly, I was surprised HOU CTR hadn’t mentioned him to me as “traffic” (…don’t know what good flight following is if they don’t tell you about traffic…DOH!…)
The controller called N5801N a couple times without a response…now I observe him still closing-in on me at my altitude…(the ADS-B In shows him at “+00” which is my same altitude, neither above nor below)… so I decided to change heading. ATC suggested ten degrees Right for me… I said “No…I’ll turn 90-Left!” which I did. A half minute later I took the screen-shot of us having turned South and the 6-o’clock traffic continuing on-course…where he would have potentially hit us.
After he passed I waited a few miles then resumed our course paralleling his towards our home. I observed on the ADS-B that he landed at Georgetown (GTU).
Today I researched the registration to find it is a Mooney (owned by a LLC) and called GTU to locate the owner…the city FBO was reluctant to give me his name but agreed to give him my number to call.
He did call me a few minutes ago and we talked. He was guarded at first, until I reassured him I only wanted us both to learn from this. He claimed to have ADS-B based TCAS but never rec’d a warning. He said he saw me only after I turned South when I was about a mile to his left….and he thought nothing much about it.
I informed him we might have traded paint if I’d not turned-away. It was a good conversation and learning experience I think. I suggested he use flight-following since his TCAS doesn’t work well. I informed him that MY Fly-Q traffic-alert gave me a 15 mile warning** of him…and that in less than 3 minutes I had to take the evasive action. Hopefully he learned something from this. I certainly did.
Here’s the screen shots of the near-miss.(Click on the pic for an ENLARGEMENT) We are the small airplane icon…the closing traffic is identified by N5801N…The Magenta-Line was my flight-plan-course-line….it appears that we might have collided in about 30-secs if we’d not changed heading:
** Notice the “15 nm Traffic Circle surrounding my own airplane-icon. This Fly-Q program feature presents “threat” aircraft within that circle, which is a cylinder/column of airspace 15nm in radius and 3,500’ above/below, and prevents non-threat aircraft from being displayed, thereby “de-cluttering” the depiction…. unless a “threat” aircraft comes within that surrounding airspace. A “threat” aircraft is displayed in black-and-white if more than approx 5 miles… Amber in color if less than 5 miles…and Red if imminent. When he displayed in Amber I made an immediate left-turn.
In retrospect, I suppose a 45-degree turn would have placed more distance between us than a 90-turn did, since we were traveling same-direction. Of course, it’s good to remember that if You ever experience a near-collision that the fastest way to avoid a collision is that a change of ALTITUDE is usually more effective than a change of course. I chose the course-change instead of altitude-change because as he was descending from above-and-behind….he was both above AND below me during that time. An altitude change by me could have either accelerated our closure…or prolonged it.