Our pilot was a relativelynew aircraft owner with almost 200 hours total time under his belt. In thattime he’s had what he considers two close calls, both of which he believes couldhave been avoided by other pilots making simple position reports. 

It was theprevious summer when our pilot started flying his Cessna 185 amphibian. Hetrained with one of the senior pilots of his flight school (who had about 20,000hours of float flying experience) as well as a friend with about 5,000 hours of185 float time. He had also flown a great deal with a rotary pilot with 20,000hours, much of it flying in remote areas.

“All of thepeople training me have drilled in the importance of position reports regardlessof whether you think someone is listening or not – especially in remote areas”says our pilot. “I have been in remote areas where I’m almost certain no oneelse has been around but still do frequent position reports.”

Oneafternoon last August our pilot was flying from Vancouver to the north end ofPitt Lake, BC. When clear of Pitt Meadows he switched his main radio to 123.20while monitoring Pitt traffic on the tower frequency. Our pilot recalls makingat least four calls from the south end of the lake starting at Grant Narrowsadvising of altitude, direction, position, and intended path en route (i.e.west side of the lake northbound). On this particular day after his second callat Goose Island at about the middle of Pitt Lake our pilot reached back to hisflight bag to grab his sunglasses – only for a moment. Within seconds of resuminghis scan, much to his shock he observed coming at him in a climbing attitudeoff his right side a white high wing float aircraft on a collision course!

With theconflict aircraft only about 200 feet away our pilot immediately banked left toavoid a collision. The other aircraft did the same. “I radioed the otheraircraft asking why they did not report their position and got no response” ourpilot recalls. “The aircraft made no radio calls afterwards as it proceeded south.”

The secondincident occurred while our pilot was returning from a visit to Princess LouisaInlet with his two children. From the top of Sechelt Inlet to Salmon Inlet hemade at least four position reports. His second radio was monitoring Sechelt on123.35 and as he passed Salmon Inlet southeast bound towards Porpoise Bay hemade one last call on 123.20 announcing that he’d be switching to the Secheltfrequency. Now on the Sechelt frequency while still monitoring 123.20 our pilotannounced his intention to turn east towards Gower Point at 500 feet. When hecompleted the turn, a commercial Beaver aircraft passed on his left just 200feet away at the same altitude but in the opposite direction!

“The otherpilot started speaking aggressively to me on 123.20, not 123.35” remembers ourpilot. “I switched to 123.20 and responded that I had reported my intentiononly moments earlier (within 15-30 seconds) on Sechelt frequency and advisedhim I heard no position reports on 123.20 from the Beaver. I was receivingtraffic reports from a Mooney operating at Sechelt but nothing from the Beaverprior to the close call. I reported this incident to the owner of thecommercial operation.”

“I makeposition reports to the point of being annoying sometimes as taught by the seasonedpilots who have trained me.” Continues our pilot, “Disappointingly, I haveobserved many other aircraft in no-conflict situations not making calls at allin busy areas. As a result of these incidents I am shopping for a TCAS systembut am not totally convinced of the Zaon product. I would like to get the Avidynestarter unit but it is about $10,000 plus installation.”

Our pilotconcludes “Until then I will rely on good radio work and good scanning toprotect me. As part of my passenger briefing I also now strongly encourage themto scan and report any conflicts or concerns. I remind them to do so throughoutthe flight. I hope you can encourage all pilots to be more active on the radiosespecially in the busier areas.”

I’ll say it again – the combination of a diligent radiowork, a keen lookout, flight following, and technological aids (be that a$10-$20K active system or a passive system at less than 1/10^th theprice) gives us our best chances of traffic safety in flight. Relying on theother guy to do the right thing? Not so much.