FLYER Club Member
Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:52 pm
#1559577
ive had to avoid many contacts who have probably been heads down in VFR and had to take aggressive avoiding action.
On the other hand, perhaps loads of pilots have had to take avoiding action because you didn't see them. How would you know?
If you look into the question on google scholar, there are loads of papers both practical and theoretical showing just how bad the MKI eyeball is at seeing conflicting traffic. There are theoretical studies calculating how long it would take to thoroughly scan the recommended area - showing that it's simply not humanly possible. There are practical studies where they sit a pilot as a passenger in a cockpit with nothing to do other than to tell the researcher whenever they see conflicting traffic - whilst another aircraft flies rings around them. The bottom line is that we're not much good at it and the reason there are so few mid-air collisions is that the sky is so big and there are so few of us, rather than because we're keeping a good look out.
Glider pilots are adamant that we are a lot of myopic old bats who don't look where we are going - probably because they can hear our engine noise and actually see the near misses that we remain blissfully unaware of. I hear from people who install traffic warning systems that they are startled by how little of the potentially conflicting traffic they were aware of before they installed their systems.
My own view is that I do look out of the cockpit and try to maintain a good scan, but I place more faith in the big sky theory. The exception to this is when you're in the circuit and can potentially predict where conflicting traffic is most likely to be and focus your scan on these areas. It always surprises me how hard it can be to pick out an aircraft e.g. on short final, even when you have a very good idea where to look for it.
