Wally_2 – [I'd] like a buck for every time I was confronted by 'farmer Brown' over the years (when I was in one of the above machines) in his Cessna filling my windscreen at some country strip" etc.
Had a mini BRB session last evening; one interesting topic was this thread. Between the four of us we reckoned on average, to have had half a dozen memorable, 'serious and notable' experiences apiece over the (many) years; go a rounds with traffic issues etc. Then there were the unquantifiable WTF stories (ala Wally), which came down to 'head-shakers' of the minor irritant variety. Rough figures, I know but it gives the idea; couple of the tales were of the very scary kind and duly reported. It's always a tough call, knowing what to 'report', what to have a quiet word with a CP/PIC about and what to ignore as being simply part of the job. **** happens - right.
I guess the point is that this type of event is a repetitive 'incident' rather than a once in a blue moon event. Compared to the thousands of 'safe', pilot organised separations in year, the percentage is probably insignificant and well within any cost/benefit risk matrix. Mathematically the probability of a 'face to face' occurring are higher than the reported incidents, but the probability of a 'contact' are much less, i.e. not too many mid air incidents caused by the scenario here.
It makes it hard to justify the expense of Unicom or FSU, rather than CTAF at the busier aerodromes, but in situations such Mach. E and Bloggs define; it's not the known traffic, but the unknown (or missed) traffic creeping into the frame during a 'busy' period that is the high risk element, particularly during taxi, runway entry, backtrack, take off and initial climb. Just saying - my two bob's worth, I consider anything moving on the ground 'blind' until I know, that they know.