I too have been almost involved in a Mid-air - with two flarm equipped aircraft, 3 in fact! I was the tow pilot of a Glider/Tug combo. All aircraft where fitted with Flarms.
On climb, through approx. 600 feet I observed a single glider tracking generally away on a divergent track from mine approx. 1000 ft above - I decided to turn 180 and clear off to another area. Whilst in this turn the glider decided to reposition, at speed, into the general area of my launch direction. He was behind and above throughout the turn. The Flarm was vacant....! When it decided to protect itself I got a single flashing light on the flarm at 12 o'clock. Upon peering out over the front I had a glider at approx 5-10 degrees above the horizon just below the cowl line, at I would estimate 300-400 metres directly in front, turning from my left to right at about 10 degree's angle of bank. I started to turn left at approx. 20 degrees of bank as I still had a glider on the rope. I was in his blind spot as I was climbing to him. At this point it went south very quickly. No sooner had I initiated the turn, that glider reversed his turn like entering a thermal, now heading into the same airspace I was heading too. At this point we were no more than 200 metres, with about 50 feet of vertical separation. We both were wing up to each other and rapidly closing with no aspect change. I rolled the tug over to approx. 80 degrees of bank and loaded up in the turn in an effort to avoid what was looking very much like a certain collision. All I felt was the tow rope load getting higher and eventually the glider released. I sat for eternity waiting for a crunch as everything was below the wing to me. I have no idea how close this got but I estimate it was well under 100 metres. This all unfolded in under 10 seconds, many of which was lost looking ahead and reactions time. Upon landing I mentioned this to the relevant instructor. After all had landed without leading I asked the glider pilots if around the time of the launch their flarms had advised them of anything - All I got was the passenger thought the launch release was fantastic and the tug looked impressive! Of the 3 flarms all had provided nothing to help with SA. Throughout the launch both aircraft would not have been further than 3 km's apart vertically and horizontally. Yes it advised me and I took action to avoid, but the margin was well below any acceptable amount. Had my lookout been better I may have avoided this through earlier re-positioning efforts. So many times in the Tug I have watched gliders and seen the flarm idle with nothing displayed, through various firmware upgrades etc. The antennae was located in a clear window up high so as not to be shielded too much. I think they are a complete diversion to good airmanship and a highly vigilant lookout. I also think they will be the loosing technology. Personally I would save the 750 euro and wait for the mandated system and use the funds on whatever that maybe - a good bet will be adsb-out - and you go buy an instrument if you want to see anything around you. Regards John -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Peter Stephenson (Internode) Sent: Sunday, 29 April 2012 5:48 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Mid Air collision risk Having been involved with two near hits in the last 10 years, both of which would have been prevented by a Flarm, it seems bloody stupid not have a 750 Euro unit not installed in *every* aircraft. PeterS On 22/04/2012 12:29 PM, S Smith wrote: > Greetings > > If you look in the following database, > > http://aviation-safety.net/index.php > > which is a wiki and lists aircraft crashes around the world back to > 1920's > > you will find very very very very few mid-airs. > > > So far this year, for 896 recorded accidents there are the following > only; > > 3 - military, training mid-airs 2 were combat jets / 1 was helicopters > > 1- GA, R22 helicopter vs Beechcraft in USA - both landed safely. > > That's it. > For the whole world. > > Now I accept this database is not a complete listing, > > and let's remember how many millions of flights there have been in > that time, > > but as a percentage, just 1 GA mid-air out of 896 reported accidents in last 6 months - a pretty reasonable sample size. > > Maybe we should think about the causes of the other 890 too ! > > and get a sense of proportion. > > regards > Stu > _______________________________________________ > Aus-soaring mailing list > [email protected] > To check or change subscription details, visit: > http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring > _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
