Confessions of a Cherokee Pilot – Is my head on a swivel?

I was flying a practice RNAV approach into Bartow Executive (BOW) in my Cherokee with a safety pilot earlier this week. It’s not an airport I practice approaches at very often since the tower doesn’t have radar, and even though I know towers in Class D airspace are not responsible for sepperation of traffic, it always makes me feel better knowing the controller has a radar screen with traffic. But then again, I have ADSB-in. If I’m close to a Mode C veil, I ALWAYS have a complete view of ALL traffic when blissfully staring at my iPad, right?

Just after passing the final approach fix on my approach into Bartow, a No GPS message flashed up on Garmin GNC 355 and both my “NAV” and “GS” flagged into view. “What’s wrong with my avionics?” I thought to myself as I informed tower I had lost GPS and was continuing with a visual approach. Tower told me to watch out for departing traffic. I could see a Cessna taking off, but not on my iPad. “Pilot forgot to turn on his skyBeacon” I thought to myself as I continued the approach. It wasn’t until later when I looked up my flight on FlightAware that I realized that my own wingtip mounted skyBeacon wasn’t outputting location data during my approach either. It wasn’t my avionics that was the issue. There was actually an unpublished GPS outage! That’s when I realized why I couldn’t see the other pilot on ForeFlight. During a GPS outage, there’s no GPS position to report! We talk a lot about losing the ability to fly GPS approaches during a hypothetical GPS outage, but not too much thought is given to losing all traffic information as well. Got to keep that head on a swivel!

I promised myself I would never become a “child of the magenta line” but I have to wonder if I’ve let myself become a “child of the automatic dependent system”. How much time do I spend looking at ADSB (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) traffic information on my iPad when I should have eyes out and head on a swivel? I won’t even fly anymore without traffic information in the cockpit. If I’m flying with a friend, I’ll make sure my Sentry Ads-b Receiver is in my flight bag just in case their aircraft isn’t equipped with ADSB-in. I once cancelled a local flight with family because I knew I would lose traffic information during the flight. The battery was low on my iPad and I had forgotten the charging cable. Was that good aeronautical decision making or was it an indication I’m too dependent on the automatic dependent system?

While we’re talking about traffic, I’ll leave you with one final thought. When it comes to preventing midairs, although nothing beats the two eyes God has given you, second place definitely goes to ATC radar services. A few months ago, I almost had a midair with a Daher TBM. I was cruising from North Georgia (49A) to Tampa (ZPH) at 7,500 ft on a beautiful clear day. I was in a remote part of Florida just north of Williston Municipal (X06) when ATC urgently instructed “IMMEDIATE 90 DEGREE LEFT TURN FOR TRAFFIC” I started making the turn before she even finished her sentence just as a Daher TBM, who had just departed Williston, flashed up and over my right wing. I never got a traffic alert on ForFlight until after it had passed. When a jet or turboprop flies a maximum performance climb at 2000+ fpm, traffic advisory algorithms may not trigger until it is too late! He was climbing at such a steep angle, I couldn’t see him below my nose. We both had ADSB, he had TAS (Traffic Advisory System), and I had ADSB-in traffic displayed on ForeFlight, but still the only thing that saved us was VFR flight following. Since that experience, I always file IFR on longer cross countries for added protection (lower risk of having radar services denied or terminated).

Keep that head on a swivel, ATC is your friend, and although onboard traffic advisories is a great tool, remember there’s multiple ways it can fail you.

 

I live next to a family whose last name is Diamond. If they grow up fascinated with the new round of space rockets, I hope they name a child Mach Diamond.

 

Are you getting traffic on your 355 from your sentry?

 

And that is why departing business jets shouldn't use all their climb performance when departing through "Indian Country" (lots of Cherokees, etc., roaming around). Just 'cause ya got it is no reason to flaunt it. Keeping closure rates (IAS) well within search and identify reaction times is smart too. The more horizon you can see ahead during climb-out, the better.

 

Yes and yes.

I would say anytime a pilot can say no to themselves, they have exercised good ADM. Yes is an easy answer, no is the hard one.

But cancelling a flight because you don't have ADS-B traffic? That is allowing your ADS-B to become a crutch instead of a another tool in the toolbox.

 

Good luck with that. They want to get to altitude with the performance they have. I was tooling along without FF (rare for me) when a Lear or some such business jet came ripping up probably 1/2 mile in front of me disappearing through the clouds above.

 

I know what ya mean. I've flown with pilots in Learjets who claimed deck angle doesn't matter because you're going where you're pointed, so you still can see straight ahead. Wrong. Airplanes, like yours for instance, fly from horizon to horizon. If you want to see them, you need to see the horizon.