Thank you PilotAware

[stillstanding]

Flying back from Shobdon to Bourn yesterday afternoon via Wellesbourne. Got a basic service from Wellesbourne and said I would pass overhead at 2,300ft.

Saw a contact in Runway HD approaching from the south east, -200 feet. Couldn't see it. Then it went yellow, both of us looking carefully for it. Then it went red! As it was indicating below I added a bit of power, but my plane is slow to respond so only added 100 feet before seeing a Europa coming straight for us. I did a diving turn to the left and it went over by maybe 200 feet.

Lessons learned?

* I waited to see the other aircraft before turning - it was me who should be giving way

* Increasing my height was the wrong thing to do, but why was the indication of the other aircraft below yet it was above? Maybe the other aircraft saw me and climbed - when the indicator went red we stopped looking at the screen!!!

* I should have zoomed in the display when the indicator went yellow to get a more accurate bearing

Anyhow, there was a good chance we wouldn't have seen the other aircraft at all without PilotAware, so thank you all!

Mike

PS The other aircraft wasn't talking to Wellesbourne. What happened to Airmanship - passing over an airfield without talking to them? 5,000 feet over OK, but 500 feet over surely you call.

[Keithvinning]

Hi Mike

Glad PilotAware was of use. We are all now seeing more traffic via PilotAware now that the weather is improving.

As you infer we must all use PilotAware as an aid to situational awareness and not be fixated on the screen as there will be others that do not have any EC so are not picked up.

What version of software are you using. if its a later one, you will have recorded your flight and if its the latest software you will be able to play it back and so see what happen at your eisure.

If the Europa was transmitting PilotAware or ADSB and therefore picked up on PilotAware, then you will be able to see the registration and its actions before your encounter.

Not to be judgemental of course but see what happened and learn.

You will also be able to see if was, more scarily, something that wasn't transmitting and therefore a completely different aircraft.

It was busy around Wellsbourne yesterday.

[stillstanding]

Thanks Keith,

I'm running 20170223 so it is logging. I've got the track playing, but its real time yes? So an hour to go before the encounter.

I've also downloaded the file and have it open as a text file. Can I search for the alerts anyway? There were plenty of green contacts, but I think only the one yellow then red.

BR,

Mike

[stillstanding]

By looking up the co-ordinates for Wellesbourne I've found the relevant part of the log. 6 aircraft regs, 5 commercials, one Europa!

But I'd still be interested in what the code means. Here is one of the log entries, I have blanked what I suspect was the culprit:

$GPGGA,165817,5211.231,N,00136.549,W,2,09,1.4,682.0,M,47.5,M,,*52
$GPGSA,A,3,25,12,32,14,29,31,02,06,26,00,00,00,2.02,1.35,1.51*09
$GPRMC,165817,A,5211.231,N,00136.549,W,65.000,89,250317,,,A*7B
$PFLAA,2,505,-2600,155,1,******!G-****,0,,0,1.5,8*6E
$PFLAA,0,8719,11571,5489,1,40097D!G-EUUB,144,,172,-7.6,9*4F
$PFLAA,0,21819,5440,9459,1,A76CA3!N578FE,147,,246,0.0,8*73
$PFLAA,0,21287,45650,4376,1,4CA809!EI-EKJ,309,,158,-7.6,9*03
$PFLAA,0,38093,40850,6662,1,405F0D!G-EZFE,323,,204,-10.7,9*27
$PFLAA,0,17570,57470,8049,1,405F12!G-EZTB,323,,207,-12.2,9*4D
$PAWRT,4020EC,1,1,1,0,0,0,*41
$PAWRT,FF4310,0,1,0,0,0,0,*47
$PAWRT,FF3210,0,1,0,0,0,0,*41
$PAWRT,FF1330,0,1,0,0,0,0,*40
$PFLAU,0,1,1,1,0,,0,,*63

[stillstanding]

OK, I've finally had the patience to sit and wait for the track replay to get to the relevant part of the flight.

It seems I misread the display. The other aircraft was +200 feet not -200 feet, so I in fact climbed, rather than maintained altitude. I put the misreading down to the background clutter on the 1:500,000 chart background (I'm using RunwayHD). On the replay I zoomed in and the the altitude of the contact is quite clear.

If any of the team would like to see a video of the replay I am happy to forward it.

[Richard]

Can you post the video on this thread so we can have a look at it too, please

[stillstanding]

The file is 40MB so I'm guessing I can't do that.

Mike

[Richard]

Can you put it on YouTube and post the link?

[stillstanding]

Good thinking, done!

https://youtu.be/O9vhd8AFT4s

Some notes:

• I have zoomed in the view much more for this reply than at the time, so everything is clearer
• The wind was around 070/30, which might explain the way the conflicting aircraft was pointing north (into wind), although moving north west
• I was fooled into thinking that the other aircraft was going to pass in front of us, so didn't take avoiding action until very late

I suggest any comments on this are made in this forum thread rather than in YouTube.

[Keithvinning]

OK, I've finally had the patience to sit and wait for the track replay to get to the relevant part of the flight.

It seems I misread the display. The other aircraft was +200 feet not -200 feet, so I in fact climbed, rather than maintained altitude. I put the misreading down to the background clutter on the 1:500,000 chart background (I'm using RunwayHD). On the replay I zoomed in and the the altitude of the contact is quite clear.

If any of the team would like to see a video of the replay I am happy to forward it.

OK thats good to know that PilotAware was accurately displaying the other aircraft.
Its not so good that you thought that it was below though.
I guess that we all need to be vigilant.
Were you using voice alerts at the time?
Thanks for sharing this with us

[stillstanding]

No voice alerts I'm afraid.

I'm definitely zooming in next time. I'm sure the mis-reading of altitude was due to being zoomed out and therefore the text not so clear against the chart background.

As mentioned, I thought the other aircraft would pass in front, in fact it was constant angle so the worse to spot. Also bear in mind that I was watching the screen at most 10% of the time the video is playing. Everything is easy to see with hindsight.

[exfirepro]

Hi Mike,

Interesting video!. As you say, the inbound aircraft definitely shows initially at +200ft., though closing rapidly to 0ft., which would have required a fairly rapid descending left turn by you to maintain / improve separation - easy to say in hindsight though.

The text size for aircraft labels is actually a function of the navigation software, NOT PilotAware. I do have Runway HD, for testing/development purposes, though I don't use it as a matter of course, but have just had a look at the manual to see if there is any obvious way to increase the size of the text associated with target aircraft. Unfortunately, I can't see anything which would allow you to do so.

This was a facility which Tim Dawson added to SkyDemon (which I mainly use) at my request late last year. It allows the text to be increased or decreased up to a maximum of +/- 150%, which I find very useful these days, especially as I need to wear glasses for close range work.

It might be worth getting in touch with Tim Marlow at Airbox to ask if a similar facility can be added to Runway HD. It definitely makes the text much easier to read against the background, which would help avoid such errors in future.

Best Regards

Peter