Oh, trust me, there’s a good story behind this photo! We’ll get to that. First, let’s take a quick trip back to the very beginning of your flight training, back to when you were first encouraged to “see and avoid” other aircraft.

That mantra will be true for all of your flying days. In fact, what surprises a lot of people when they begin instrument training is that pilots flying on IFR flights are required to see and avoid other aircraft too! Check out what it says in the FARs:

“When weather conditions permit, regardless of whether an operation is conducted under instrument flight rules or visual flight rules, vigilance shall be maintained by each person operating an aircraft so as to see and avoid other aircraft…” 14 CFR §91.113(b)

Pilots are further required to not create a collision hazard by operating too close to another aircraft 14 CFR §91.111 and then there’s the FAA’s catch-all rule which prohibits a person from operating in a careless or reckless manner 14 CFR 91.13. Of course, none of this will matter if a pilot isn’t vigilant to begin with and goes off and collides with another aircraft. Then the rules just end up being the list of things they did wrong!

Well great, you’re probably diligent about watching out the windows of your airplane and looking for other traffic. That’s only a part of your duty. You’ve also got to see what’s in your airplane’s blind spots. Every airplane has them! Pilots of high wing airplanes have a lot of difficulty seeing aircraft that are behind them when the other aircraft is at the same altitude and above. Even aircraft in the 9 to 10 o’clock positions can be hard to see when flying a high wing airplane.

Low wing pilots have trouble seeing aircraft below them from about the 8 o’clock to 10 o’clock positions when the opposing traffic is in close proximity. Every airplane pilot has a lot of trouble seeing an aircraft below and in front of them. The nose of an airplane can obstruct visibility for a long distance ahead of you (see the article below).

So what is the vigilant pilot to do? The answer is to maneuver regularly so that you can check your blind spots!

When airplanes climb, the nose obstructs visibility even more dramatically than it does in level flight. Yet, the Airplane Flying Handbook reminds us that:

“Proper scanning techniques are essential to a safe takeoff and climb, not only for maintaining attitude and direction, but also for collision avoidance in the airport area.” Page 5-4 Airplane Flying Handbook (2004).

Another good technique is to lower the nose slightly at frequent intervals during the climb. Many pilots feel that they must continue a best rate of climb (V_Y) pitch attitude for the entire climb to altitude. This is sometimes such a high pitch attitude that you cannot effectively scan for traffic. An additional consideration is that an excessive pitch attitude can lead to higher engine operating temperatures due to reduced airflow through the cowl.

Therefore once you are above pattern altitude, it is advisable to climb with a slightly reduced pitch attitude, resulting in a slightly higher airspeed than V_Y, in order to improve cooling and to increase forward visibility. If there are times when a best rate of climb pitch attitude is required for a prolonged time, the performance lost to momentarily lowering the nose to check for traffic is nothing compared to the degradation in performance from colliding with another aircraft during your climb!

Certainly, at non-towered airports pilots must be alert for other traffic. But don't forget, at towered airports, pilots must scan for other aircraft in and around the pattern with them too.

Remember, it is NOT the function of the control tower to provide separation services, and they don’t! This isn’t to say that a control tower, on a workload permitting basis, won’t call traffic to you. They will. After all, they’re no more interested in watching a midair collision than we are in having one! But, it’s the pilot’s responsibility to see and avoid, not the controller’s responsibility to tell us to look out and swerve!

Among the first tasks that students should learn is “straight and level” flight. However, too few students learn to do this by looking to the sides of the airplane to ensure that the wings are neither too high nor too low. If one wing is higher than the other, the airplane will not fly “straight”! The Airplane Flying Handbook confirms this technique:

“Straight flight is accomplished by visually checking the relationship of the airplane’s wingtips with the horizon. Both wingtips should be equidistant above or below the horizon (depending on whether the airplane is a high-wing or a low-wing type)…” Page 3-5 Airplane Flying Handbook (2004).

When an airplane is turned, pilots must clear the area in the direction of the turn. If you’re flying a high wing plane, you must learn to lift the wing on the side to which you intend to turn before you begin to bank in the direction of the turn. If you’re flying a low wing airplane, the process is more intuitive, but remember that there could be an aircraft that was shielded by your wing or fuselage that you’ll be surprised to find as the turn progresses.

It’s very easy for pilots to get focused on what’s ahead of them while in cruise flight. There are checkpoints to watch for, nav logs, and navigation equipment to monitor, plus, your destination is in front of you. However, the traffic sharing the sky with you is all around you! You should be attentive to the airspace to your sides, above and below to ensure that you and another aircraft are not converging. Head on collisions are unlikely because most pilots spend the majority of their time looking forward.

Moving your head isn't sufficient because of the blind spots every airplane has, and just because your airplane’s heading could remain constant during long portions of a flight doesn’t mean that pilots shouldn’t alter course regularly to check for traffic. Note:

“Sustained periods of straight and level flight in conditions which permit visual detection of other traffic should be broken at intervals with appropriate clearing procedures to provide effective visual scanning.” See 4-4-15(c) AIM (2010).

Accidents and incidents regrettably do happen, often with tragic results. They’re disturbingly frequent around airports and in the airport pattern where there is a higher traffic density. So, pilots need to use the clearing procedures discussed above. Further, while good listening and communicationg skills help to sort out who is around you and where they are, you can’t solely rely on the radio because at non-towered airports there can be people operating legally without radios, or foolhardily ignoring their radios. Here is a local case where things broke down in several ways:

In November 2003 a pilot flying a Piper Archer attempted to land in Westerly, Rhode Island and collided with a departing Cessna 180. He reported that he saw the Cessna take the runway and “thought it would remain there until after he landed. The pilot continued the approach, and soon after he passed over the runway threshold, he heard the sound of another airplane's engine, followed by an impact with the airplane. The pilot observed the other airplane descend towards the ground, as he performed a forced landing to the runway. The Piper touched down hard on the runway, collapsing the right main landing gear assembly, and came to rest upright on a taxiway. The Cessna came to rest in a nose down attitude off to the right side of the runway. The pilot of the Piper did not recall hearing the Cessna make any transmissions on the CTAF frequency, but did recall hearing other aircraft make transmissions.” NTSB Probable Cause March 30, 2005

The pilot of the Piper and his 2 passengers escaped injury. The 2 flight instructors in the Cessna 180 were killed. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the accident was the result of, “The Piper pilot's improper decision to continue a landing on an occupied runway, which resulted in an in-flight collision with the departing Cessna. Factors related to the accident were the departing Cessna pilot's inattentive radio communications...”

Granted, no pilot should have attempted to land over another aircraft. But if the pilot of the Cessna, which was equipped with radios, had made any announcements it could have broken a link in the accident chain.

Now, back to the photo that began this article. Here is another taken from a different angle. This reportedly occurred in Florida, in December 1999 at the Plant City Municipal Airport. Apparently, the pilot of the Piper was in the pattern and didn’t realize that there were 2 Cessnas preceding him to the airport. He saw the first land, and collided with the second on final. The collision caused the 2 airplanes to lock together and descend as one!

The pilot of the Piper claims not to have known of the collision until he didn’t end up as low to the ground as he’d expected. Apparently, the occupants of the Cessna were very much aware of the Piper’s presence and landed as uneventfully as possible, choosing the grass adjacent to the runway to soften the impact! There were no injuries, and both airplanes flew again.

I wouldn’t expect to be as lucky as the people in the second group described above. So what’s a pilot to do? The answer isn’t just “look”. It’s about knowing where and knowing how to look.

• Pilots must know and understand the limitations to visibility of their aircraft and take appropriate actions to clear the area around them while climbing and descending and prior to turning.
• Pilots must be fully responsible for traffic awareness and avoidance at all times, including as they take an active runway, and when operating at towered airports.
• Take nothing for granted, even if you have the right of way, don’t presume that the other aircraft sees you.
• Fortunately, midair accidents and incidents such as these are rare, but they happen.
• Even worse, these types of accidents usually happen during the day, in good weather conditions!
• Always be vigilant for other traffic, even if you’re just flying along in cruise flight!

Note from the editor: Here’s the gist of the “rule of thumb” pictured above: The point you see just over the nose of your aircraft is 1 mile ahead of you for every 1,000 feet of altitude above ground level (AGL) you are flying at. To see a more mathematical approach, click here to download a PDF file that also has a way to estimate distance in a multiengine plane or a single with a non-standard nose.

This is a very handy tool. I've cross-checked a few estimations using this rule of thumb with plotter measurements on the sectional and comparisons with GPS DME distances, and it has always worked out very close.

Another method is, after the distance to the point on the ground just over the nose is determined, use that segment from the airplane to that point ahead to measure an additional equal segment further ahead - you have automatically estimated distance to a point double the distance from the original point. If visibility allows, that can be tripled, quadrupled, etc.

Here's another idea with this rule of thumb. When you are entering the pattern on the 45 at 1000 feet AGL and desire to establish an approximately a 1 mile (lateral distance) downwind, watch for this point to be nearing the center of the runway - then turn downwind. You should have a perfect downwind, approximate 1 mile from the airport! This can help tremendously in avoiding illusions caused by vastly different runway sizes, non-paved runways, and emergency fields.

Use this technique also just prior to that when maneuvering from 1500' overhead to a point about two miles from the runway to identify a landmark at double the distance where the letdown can be started.

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I received these photos in an email from a friend. I forwarded it to some friends a while back, but thought it was worth sharing with eveyone.

I got many responses, one suggestion was that if we paint the PFC fleet in similar fashion, we'll be much easier for the tower to spot. Another alert reader suggested that it would be "instructional and eliminate the need for an exterior checklist!"

Anyone who flies at Hartford-Brainard Airport (KHFD) knows that it can be difficult to spot from the air. For those of you who aren’t as familiar, Brainard lies on the west side of the Connecticut River and is surrounded by a dike that has a very tall tree-line upon it. See the photo on the left. It's a view of the approach to Runway 2 from the south.

Much easier to find is the closed airport on the east side of the river, Rentschler Field. Rentschler is the site of the Pratt & Whitney facility in East Hartford. There are also several newer structures that were built after the airport was closed, namely the University of Connecticut football stadium and a fairly sizable Cabela’s, a sporting goods store.

Newcomers to Brainard frequently see Rentschler and head towards it. The tower controllers at Brainard are a superb group of professionals, and they usually catch on quicker than the pilot that the airplane is headed toward Rentschler. Here’s a recent exchange with just such a person who was persistent about heading the wrong way:

Brainard Tower: “Do you have the airport in sight now?”

N12345: “I think so.”

Brainard Tower: “Well, do you see a runway with a very large building at the end of it?”

N12345: “Yes, I do!”

Brainard Tower: “Then don’t land there! That’s a Cabela’s on a closed airport! We’re still on the other side of the river.”