Heads up!

Instructional flights are statistically one of the safest kinds of flying you can experience. Unfortunately, midair collisions can occur to any pilot, as evidenced by two airplanes on instructional flights involved in a midair in December 2008 over the Florida Everglades. The weather was VFR and visibility was 10 miles, yet the pilots and CFIs in the Cessna 172 and Piper PA-44 Seminole wound up in the same place at the same time.

Midair collisions are close to the top of every pilot’s list of things they fear most. And why not: Essentially we’re aerial fish swimming around in a gigantic ocean so we’re very aware that the possibility of bumping into another airplane exists. The probability of that happening is extremely small, yet midairs do happen, and they are amongst the most-studied incidents in all of aviation.

The statistical truths that have come out of decades of studying midair accidents are startling, but at the same time, thoroughly believable. The majority of accidents happen during daylight hours on a weekend, when airplanes are most likely to be flying. And the rest of the stats fit that profile exactly: it’s generally nice weather, or at least VFR, and most happen in the vicinity of a nontowered airport below 3,000 feet agl.

Certainly one of the most shocking stats is that in 37 percent of the accidents, there is a CFI on board. We say it’s shocking, but it’s not, is it? A large percentage of weekend flights are for flight instruction and it’s easy to see an instructor being so busy instructing that he forgot to be a pilot, and wasn’t looking around as he should. But, would that have helped? That depends on which airplane he was in.The majority of midairs aren’t head-ons. In fact, according to the NTSB studies, the majority of midairs involve a faster airplane overtaking a slower one, seldom from more than 15 degrees directly behind. In other words, the pilot of the faster airplane didn’t have to deal with a high closure rate where airplanes are headed right for one another, their speeds compounded into a blinding rush. Instead, one aircraft is more or less creeping up on another airplane and eventually hits it. When that happens, the pilot in the slower airplane can be looking out of the window all he wants, but he won’t see the faster bird coming up behind him.

Keeping ourselves from becoming involved in an aerial fender bender requires constant vigilance on our part. But what are the magic skills and procedures that are going to keep us out of harm’s way?

The ways to avoid a midair actually group themselves into two general categories. The first is recognizing the situations that foster midairs and the second is knowing how to spot airplanes and stay out of their way.

Looking at the numbers we see a very predictable profile:Accidents happen either in areas of higher traffic or when descending from a cross-country and moving down the same corridor other aircraft are using on the approach to an airport.

Air traffic control has no choice but to clump aircraft together because we have no choice but to land at airports. That means all traffic is taking off at one known point and landing at another known point. Also, if the airway system is being used, it’s obvious that other bottlenecks exist in the form of intersections and VOR stations. On many flights, GPS has eliminated a dependence on the narrow thoroughfare that is the airway; it has spread traffic over a wider area and therefore eliminated some of the choke points. However, it also has put aircraft in less predictable positions—we don’t know where they will be coming from.

As pilots, we all like to think that our level of collision-avoidance awareness is always cranked up to the max, but if we’re honest, we know it’s not. When we’re droning along en route, many of us tend to let our traffic threat-level awareness slip because we sense that we’ve left the traffic jams behind and won’t see the next batch for some time. We should keep in mind that the possibility of a midair is never zero regardless of where we are. Every airway, every intersection and VOR station, and every airport represent a possible concentration of traffic; we have to keep our eyes looking outside of the cockpit.

While en route, we should also be paying attention to the Military Operating Areas (MOAs) along our path. They are there to warn us that the military may be running some fast movers through that airspace and the best way to know if they are active is to call the operating authority ahead of time. It’s a real bummer to glance out and see a formation of F-16s headed your way. Every military base has a Web site that profiles its MOAs and what it does in them, as well as providing contact information.

So, we know the airplanes are out there. Somewhere. But how do we go about finding them? And what do we do if we do find them?

First, don’t forget the name of the game is “see and be seen.” Someone is just as likely to hit us as we are to hit them, so a first line of defense is to do everything we can to make ourselves more visible.

The most useful items the majority of airplanes have to raise visibility are a landing light and/or strobes to let people know where they are. It doesn’t have to be dusk for lights to make us more visible and, since most midairs happen midday, it makes perfect sense to run strobes all the time—and the landing light, too. Replacing a bulb now and then is cheap insurance.

Regardless of how visible we may think our airplane is, however, the heart of collision avoidance is the pilot seeing the other aircraft as soon as possible, regardless of where it is in relation to us. And this means scanning every bit of sky open to us, from well behind the wing to right over our nose. It’s especially important that we don’t miss the area behind us.

When scanning, it helps to remember that when our eyes are in motion, they aren’t focusing as well as we think they are. So we need to “click” from segment to segment of the sky, stopping for a second or two in each to give our eyes time to focus and tell us what is actually out there. The experts tell us that because our vision is the sharpest right in front of our eyes, each segment of the scan should be no more than about 15 degrees wide, so we’ll be constantly ratcheting from side to side.

We also have to keep in mind that the way in which we perceive, and react to, a threat is an agonizingly slow process. First, our mind takes its sweet time thinking that’s an airplane; then more time is spent evaluating the threat, telling our muscles to move the flight controls; and then the airplane has to actually react. This takes an unbelievable 10 to 12 seconds. If an airplane is closing on us from in front, even at an angle, our closing speed will be at least 240 mph even if it’s just two relatively slow Cessna 172s, and that eats up 10 seconds in a heartbeat. This means there is absolutely no substitute for seeing traffic as early as humanly possible.

Certainly one of the most overlooked collision-avoidance techniques is nothing more than telling every passenger, regardless of age, to sing out if they see another aircraft. One of our friends was “bumped” (neither airplane crashed) on the rear of his fuselage by a much faster airplane making a turn. The other pilot was focused on something on the ground. However, a young passenger in the backseat of our friend’s aircraft watched the other airplane slowly close on them and didn’t think to say a word. They were all very lucky. So brief every person to watch for other airplanes. We can never have too many eyeballs looking. And don’t think that having one of the increasingly available and affordable electronic collision avoidance systems onboard is a substitute for active eyeballs. Keep your eyes outside of the airplane.

The airplanes that present a clear danger are those that remain stationary in our field of vision. If they are stationary—which means their bearing in relation to us isn’t changing—it’s an indication our paths are going to cross, and it’s probably a good idea to change direction immediately.

When it comes to taking evasive action, there’s a tendency to turn away from the offending airplane in the same direction the other airplane is going, and that’s almost always a mistake. This prolongs the time of threat because both airplanes are trying to move in the same direction. It’s far better to turn toward the tail and, if necessary, push the nose down at the same time. Pushing the nose enlists gravity as an aid, rather than pulling and fighting gravity, and turning toward the tail shortens the area of conflict. Plus, we don’t lose sight of the other airplane. And, by the way, if it looks as if it’s even remotely close, don’t hesitate to use every bit of aileron the airplane has and don’t be afraid to tighten the steep turn with additional elevator.

In most midair collisions at least one airplane had a clear view of the other. So, if we keep looking hard enough, we won’t wind up another FAA statistic.

Budd Davisson is an aviation writer/photographer and magazine editor who has written approximately 2,200 articles and has flown more than 300 different types of aircraft. A CFI since 1967, he teaches about 30 hours a month in his Pitts S-2A Special. Visit his Web site.

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The FARs are very specific on who has the right of way in almost every situation. Although worth reading, the regulation (FAR 91.113) can be broken down into five ideas:

1. Gliders, balloons, and airships will always have the right of way over airplanes.

2. When overtaking a slower airplane, that airplane has the right of way; go around on the right side.

3. When head-on, both airplanes go to the right.

4. If both airplanes are converging, the airplane on the right has the right of way.

5. When in the pattern or on final, the airplane landing (often the lowest or closest to the runway) has the right of way.

Avoidance Advice

The basics of midair avoidance include, but are not limited to:

• Have the strobes and lights on.
• Search sky segments constantly from well behind the wing to the other wing.
• Clear before each turn.
• Tell every passenger to look for traffic and let us know immediately.
• Turn toward the tail of conflicting traffic.
• Keep the windshield, windows, and sunglasses clean.