Originally Posted by onceapilot
The subject has nothing to do with mil training or how good you think you are, learn and follow the TCAS rules
That's exactly what I had been advocating - please re-read my post. The funny thing is that often, at the slightest mention of military operations, some colleagues will charge you with the worst possible offences, often in contradiction with what you had been saying
Originally Posted by uplinker
TCAS looks at all transponder equipped aircraft up to 80nm away including behind and to the sides of us and up to 9,900' above and below our own aircraft. I might be able to spot aircraft in front of me, or a contrail, but I cannot see aircraft behind me, or to the side - behind the cockpit window field of view cut-off, or those directly above or below me. So it is very dangerous to assume that the one target one can see is the source of the RA.
For your information only, that's what fighter pilots are required to perform during air combat - to keep a picture of what's happening above, beside and especially behind. So even if a TCAS can do better (and once again I'm not challenging that) it remains that people from that background will have a better instant understanding of what's happening - which once again, sorry to repeat for some, doesn't preclude following TCAS orders.
There was years ago a fascinating incident when a 747 captain was ordered by ATC to take an avoiding heading related to another aircraft - which he had on TCAS. The turn was to the right, and TCAS was showing the intruder on starboard. So he declined, ATC gave again the same order, which was declined again. ATC shouted an avoiding action, which was more abruptly denied... and so it went, up to a TCAS RA. Simply because the 747 captain (sort of civilian god having paid for his training ) had never heard of a triangle of speeds, or an intercept profile, which every fighter pilot - or Navy Officer out at sea ! - would have been familiar with.
On many TCAS, the bearing provided on the display is not so accurate - it's not an air-to-air radar, like what you have in a Mirage or F16 - but ATC, even the civilian, have all the software behind their screens, for the "interception" not to happen. Calculations are the same than in an air-to-air radar.