Originally Posted by Greybeard
Those words could be misinterpreted. Relative bearing is not part of the collision avoidance calculation......Plus or minus 15 degrees is the certification standard in the forward sector.
Agree.
The TA that is 'painted' 1 o'clock, may flash by you at your 11 o'clock
Imagine if you had turned left!
Capt PB, nice post. Humbly agree with all.
Originally Posted by Wizofoz
"Attempt to acquire the traffic visually and maneuver as required".
A valid instruction. The problem is that many pilots interpret the instruction "maneuver" in a limited fashion.
Maneuver is not solely turn left/right.
Maneuver includes accelerate/decelerate. Increase/decrease vertical speed (Decrease V/S being recommended in many advisories on this topic).
Why do pilots want to limit themselves to one form of maneuver? It seems very unimaginative and very undisciplined in light of all the time and expense we incurred learning to navigate in three dimensions!
I believe we are negative training these days, teaching people to sit and wait for an RA to save them.
I sometimes wonder if the problem is bigger than that.
When I was doing ground school for CPL and IFR, we learned basic operating principles of, and limitations of: pressure altimeters, magnetic compasses,
gyroscopic AI, non directional beacons (quadrantal errors, turning errors, coastal refraction....), VOR (site error, scalloping.......) etc
Maybe that WW2 technology was easier to comprehend...
.... or maybe the technically oriented people that became pilots at those times had an interest in the underlying technology.
My father's generation used to pour over copies of "Power Mechanics" to understand the gadgets of their time, to a level of
how does it work?
Now we have FMS with manufacturer supplied databases, IRS's that initialise using TSO'd GPS, and TCAS that use arcane mathematics to filter targets and predict threats, with interfaces that are familiar to a generation of pilots that grew up with Von Neumann machines in the form of microcomputers, we have a pilot population that tends to
unconditionally accept anything that is displayed on an LCD or LED display.
We are now a generation that has very little interest in the underlying technology that make our gadgets work. If it has an effective user interface, thats about it.
That might be ok if you are joe public using an iPhone or a digital television. I don't see how it is ok for an
airliner pilot to not have at least a basic idea of the principles of operation, and limitations of, every bit of kit fitted to his or her aeroplane.