Interesting thread..... Seems a lot of problems are our own doing, "pushing in" on circuits etc, classics like VOR station overheads, centre of airways following GPS etc....
One thing that always worries me, is if you suddenly find your windscreen filled with another aircraft, will you both remember the turn right rule, or will self preservation take over and will each of you go for the slightly easier avoidance turn and end up playing airbourne chicken
...
The only times I have been in REAL fear of a mid-air , well the first one was at Ormond beach in Florida, where after 7pm the airfield becomes uncontrolled so it is down to your discretion which runway to land etc. I had been for a bimble up the coast and back, and joined the circuit in use by THREE
other c-150's practicing thier night landings on runway 35. Joined and did a full stop landing, then went again for a few more circuits..... Well, on climbout of my third circuit, in the gap I had engineered myself after the other 3 a/c ( all in runway 35 circuit and spaced nicely), to my shock I saw a landing light coming straight at me, with the radio bursting into life announcing " Embray riddle xxxx, short finals for runway 17 practice VOR approach"
, I had to make a sharp turn to the right, which took me well off the circuit, and the other a/c did not even move, just ploughed straight on and landed on 17 AGAINST the four aircraft n the circuit
..... As a low hours PPL student , that really knocked my confidence in the "see and avoid" principle. ( and yes, all 4 of us training at OBA put a complaint in, don't know if there was ever an outcome)...
Second time was being aerotowed in a glider, about 1000 feet just making our first turn, a warrior flew about 3' above us coming at 90° across our path
, right through the middle of the ATZ
, luckily me, my instructor and the tug driver had seen him , and taken avoiding action by decending hard, but it is scary how easily and quickly other A/C pop up without seemingly having a clue where they are, or about others in their vicinity....
In my eyes, the ONLY way to fly safly is to be eyes outside for 95% of the time, all the gps/tcas/ris/ras in the world is no help if some plank has decided to ingnore everything and fly where the hell he likes
.