Mon Jun 18, 2018 2:09 pm
#1618663
I don't think it's as black and white as some of the "why wouldn't you spend the cost of 1-2hrs flying on safety?" brigade make out.
It's not a simple binary choice with very clear implications like refusing to buy a motorcycle helmet. It is not a case of spend and be significantly safer by a quantifiable margin or don't spend and take a massive risk.
I'm not exactly poor (though certainly not rich by aviation standards) and if I wanted to then I could spend the £200 or so that PAW costs right now, without having to think about how it affected my finances.
But there are various reasons that I don't:
- I'm just not keen on another 'take it with me' device in the cockpit, especially one that involves cables, battery packs and antennae. This reason is partly also why I've not yet used a GoPro or similar in the aeroplane. I'm about the flying, not about festooning the aircraft with extra electronic boxes and fiddling with them.
- The traffic that really gets my pulse racing "in your 11 o'clock, range of one mile, crossing left to right, no height information" already isn't carrying/using a transponder, so how likely are they to adopt any new system that isn't mandated and make themselves visible? And yes, I know that this traffic is almost invariably at very low level and therefore no threat at all, but it still gets my pulse racing.
- I'm not keen on the non-directional warnings. If I get a piece of kit telling me I have something, somewhere, within 2 miles (or whatever range) then how long should I spend looking for it? And to the exclusion of what else? Should I search the sky until I find it, no matter what, changing direction and height as required? At least when a controller calls traffic and I don't spot it, I can ask for an update and the controller usually helpfully informs me that it has past behind or turned away and I can forget about it, or tells me that we continue to converge and I can then change heading/height as a precaution. At what point with one of these range warnings do you just shrug your shoulders, accept that you're not going to spot it and hope you don't hit it?
- Generally, I'm just not an early adopter with technology. I like to watch and wait and see what happens, see what emerges as the most logical solution to the problem - if indeed one is required. Despite trying to be as cautious as I can in this respect, my life to date is strewn with impulsive purchases that I wish I'd not made, or at least wish I'd not rushed into.
For the moment, my traffic avoidance strategy involves a good lookout, taking a traffic service whenever I can get one, avoiding known areas of intense glider activity, and avoiding most powered light GA by (where possible) flying above 4,000ft rather than in the 1,500-3,000ft range so beloved of the PPL training establishment.
Last edited by defcribed on Mon Jun 18, 2018 2:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.