Originally Posted by
Genghis the Engineer
You might want to check what "180 degrees" means, as illustrated in the diagram, which is a flat representation of a full sphere. Your photograph is probably showing around 25 degrees left and 45 degrees right of forwards, and maybe 30 up and 20 down.
Also, collisions don't necessarily happen head on! That of course is why cockpit view diagrams use either the Hammer of Molinye graticules, that show the full sphere.
G
(163 hours in PA28s, but trying not to add any more, simply because just about anything else in my logbook is more interesting to fly.)
But Genghis those diagrams are very misleading. Because what you can see is very dependent on head position. If I put my face next to the left hand window in a PA28 I can see a lot more than the diagram shows. If I put my head forward I can see a lot more up.
i know collisions can happen at any angle and are dependent on aircraft speed, bearing, heading, climb/descent rate and relative altitude. It also depends on human physiology as well - we don’t see too good behind us as predators!
So my point is, that the aircraft design is only a small factor for most modern aircraft - you need to fly something like the Comper Swift where looking out ahead is pretty tricky!
The other thing to point out is that the majority of the RAF’s FLARMS are actually PowerFLARMs and so they detect ADS-B as well. If the amateurish Pilot Aware did ADS-B Out instead of some random Betamax format (thanks BEagle) then it would be useful. FLARM is the same, but as the gliders have invested in it then it makes sense for now. But what we need is a common International standard - that is ADS-B - so when I take a Typhoon or A400M to other countries I can see the light aircraft not just some amateur lash-up knocked up in someones shed!