Should I report a near miss to transport Canada ?
Posted by Druken_sincerity@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 37 comments
So it happened today. I was flying westward ,building hours. I had just left the Quebec terminal area and climbed at my requested hight, 6500 feet. There was a lot of up drafts and down drafts so I was losing or gaining alt all over the place. I was in none controlled airspace and was monitoring and clearly stating my position on the onroute frequency 126.7. Then, all of a sudden, I see a plane to my left, directly perpendicular to me passing underneath me at about 300 feet. Scared the shit out of me, the dude never made any calls. After that I made a call saying exactly where I was and that I have visual on a plane, and they didn't respond. I flew the next hour, with white knuckles and reporting my position every 2min. I'm still a bit shook. I'm only at about 110 flight hour total. So im wondering would reporting this do anything and would it negatively impact me ?
Reasonable_Hippo9163@reddit
300 feet is even close to a near miss
vtjohnhurt@reddit
That why you're still here.
Druken_sincerity@reddit (OP)
Here ?
vtjohnhurt@reddit
You avoided collision because both aircraft were not precisely on assigned altitude.
rhapsodydude@reddit
I don’t know what to say. You don’t even have the language barrier, imagine what’s it like for those who don’t speak much French. The Montreal and Quebec TMA are frequently under NOTAM limited capacity especially in the summer time. Good luck getting flights following or even transiting. The busy areas around training airports are basically a flying circus. I had a close call even under IFR when a student unexpectedly turned into me in the pattern. I feel like not having a more stringent ADSB mandate is really doing a disservice to safety.
Druken_sincerity@reddit (OP)
Ya i was looking into ADSB receivers and if I should get one. But im still unclear on exactly what and how and which one I would need
rhapsodydude@reddit
I had in & out but the utility is limited because no mandate =no wide spread equipage. Many of the cheap school airplanes won’t be equipped so you won’t see them. Just check fr24 or ADSB exchange…. But yeah do get a sentry or whatever. Better than nothing.
helno@reddit
Some of that is changing. There is a network of grown stations being built and the flight schools have invested in other EC tech so they are visible in areas with coverage.
Going to take a while for full coverage with no mandate or funding.
caca6969999@reddit
Pas te mentir ya rien a signaler ici, c’est du non controller et c’est un avion NORDO très probablement. La meilleure manière d’éviter que ça se reproduise serait de continuer à toujours bien scanner l’horizon et de continuer à faire tes calls. You got this
Druken_sincerity@reddit (OP)
Merci caca. Mais en fait je pense il avait une radio c etait un C-172 . Donc en general ya une radio mais qui sait
RGN_Preacher@reddit
A single combined frequency for entire regions of Canada is up there with the dumbest shit in aviation. Especially Montreal eastward where it’s done in French. Just asking for so many step overs + incomplete pictures. You can’t keep a mental model of the entire airspace even if everyone was perfect on the radio.
Druken_sincerity@reddit (OP)
Ya but as a native French and English speaker, I must admit that's not the hard part. Without getting into hateful or racist comments, thats not my point, but I must admit that certain Asian accents are so fucking hard to understand on the radio, and even worse when they pronounce French names or locations. It's actually frustrating, because they also couple that with quick and unprepared speaking.
Ramen-89@reddit
You should try training in the Lower Mainland, Glen Valley training area was wild when you’re surrounded by ten other training aircraft and 9 of them are broadcasting in broken Chinese English.
I’m still surprised we haven’t seen any collisions.
kokomo1989@reddit
That place terrified me😵💫
Full_Wind_1966@reddit
Well that is just how it is in aviation. Every one has an accent, some are harder to understand than others but we all try to do the best job we can. When you start flying into other countries, even the controllers often have thick accents
vARROWHEAD@reddit
I would CADOR that myself. Could prevent a fatality
dumbassretail@reddit
How? Nobody did anything wrong.
RedstoneMC2@reddit
CADORS are for "daily occurrences" and a lot of routine stuff gets put in despite no incident, like go-arounds. A big part is to help identify safety trends. Although this airprox isn't too big a deal and I also wouldn't bother reporting, it would be a totally valid CADOR.
dumbassretail@reddit
I know and I’m not saying it’s not valid, I just don’t see how it will prevent a fatality. This is a known risk of VFR flying that can’t be eliminated unless we change the entire concept of VFR.
Ruepic@reddit
It’s just a reminder to anyone who reads the CADORs that this stuff happens.
drain-angel@reddit
Next time to try to get positive identification of the plane. Reg, colour, etc. Otherwise it will just be another unsolved report.
Transport/Nav Canada are trying to get more submissions and reports to push ADS-B. The more awareness and voices that speak up the better.
Southern_Okra_1090@reddit
I heard from my pilot friend. Every pilot knows someone who died trying to become a pilot. I wish everyone in this trade fly safe and safe trip home everyday.
BathtubInTheSky@reddit
Anyone that's flown in Glen valley knows 300ft is 3x the standard separation
Wookiepilot89@reddit
Death Valley International!
Reasonable-Ad3997@reddit
They happen. Especially close to TCAs - I did all my time building in southern Ontario where flight following was very good, and everyone not talking to centre was on 126.7 (almost). However, if you’re not on flight following you can’t hear centre giving traffic advisories in class E airspace. If you were just out of YQB, unless you flew more than 75 (ish) miles NW you’d be in class E at 6500, so in class E airspace, don’t have to talk to anyone - however flight following is available if they’re able to take you. My advice, is get flight following. Most of the time they’ll give you a heads up if there’s anyone around you, even if it’s just an unidentified radar target which may be a NORDO aircraft who isn’t talking to anyone, and it gives you a bit of peace of mind. Close calls happen but they’re rare! Keep a good eye out and pick up flight following when it’s available.
Druken_sincerity@reddit (OP)
What would have been the flight following frequency around CYQB ?
Reasonable-Ad3997@reddit
It’ll be either 124.0 for terminal or 135.02 for centre. If you check out the comm section in the CFS for YQB you can find the info there. You can always ask tower “just wondering what would be a good flight following frequency”.
Check in with them once you’re out of the control zone, and tower tells you you’re good to change, tell them what you’re planning and that you’re requesting flight following and that’s about it.
Tubkal@reddit
This is the right answer. I might add that if you don’t request flight following, you are broadcasting on 126.7 and have a second radio, monitor nearby MF/ATFs frequencies. It’s common for folks tuning into their local ATFs and not bothering with the en-route frequency.
It’s normal to be shook, and this experience will make you a better pilot. Safe flying!
Tasty-Show4438@reddit
If I was in your shoes I wouldn’t report it. Save yourself the paperwork. I mean I’m not 100% up to date on canadas regs but from my understanding the other plane was well within in his right doing what he was doing. No one was at fault just a close call. Same sorta scenario has happened to me a few times mainly with military helicopters every time I’ve decided not to make a report.
cirroc0@reddit
It happens from time to time. First time for me was just after getting my PPL. Some bozo in a Citabrea, no radio, doing chandelles on a marked VFR route just outside Calgary class C.
I couldn't raise him on 126.7 and when I called terminal the first thing they did was warn me of a close "primary contact" and noted they were unable to talk to him either. I gave him some distance and moved on.
More recently I spotted an ultralight (same general area actually) putting along a couple of hundred feet below be going the other way on a nice Saturday afternoon. No radio there either.
Keep your eyes open. The sky can be pretty crowded, especially close to a city or airports.
Druken_sincerity@reddit (OP)
People scary me, machines are predictable
Philly514@reddit
This happened to me last Friday in the zone directly north of Lake Champlain/Bromont area. Multiple people made false calls about their altitudes and one guy flew at the wrong altitude and flew above me by 300ish feet. People need re-training.
Druken_sincerity@reddit (OP)
Man, I trust plane and know they are safe and im always planing incase something happens like engine issues or fires or whatever. But the one thing that scares me the most ,be it on the road or in the sky ,it's other people. I think a months ago or so, there was such an accident in cornwall. Dude didnt monitor the right frequence or something and smashed directly into another dude doing his IFR checkride. So they never saw him coming.
Philly514@reddit
I know it’s spooky, I did my PPL training between Mirabel and Cornwall so that was so messed up. We gotta keep our eyes open and maybe buy a Foreflight sentry haha
3minence@reddit
Were you in an area that ATC cannot see you? Typically where I fly, the centre frequency monitor VFR flights OCTA and will give safety alerts for airprox events like this.
Was nothing heard on either CTAF or ATC fq?
As for reporting it's up to you. 300ft opposite direction is pretty close, but not an IRM or RRM.
Druken_sincerity@reddit (OP)
I was outside all controlled area and on the onroute frequency by then.
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
So it happened today. I was flying westward ,building hours. I had just left the Quebec terminal area and climbed at my requested hight, 6500 feet. There was a lot of up drafts and down drafts so I was losing or gaining alt all over the place. I was in none controlled airspace and was monitoring and clearly stating my position on the onroute frequency 126.7. Then, all of a sudden, I see a plane to my left, directly perpendicular to me passing underneath me at about 300 feet. Scared the shit out of me, the dude never made any calls. After that I made a call saying exactly where I was and that I have visual on a plane, and they didn't respond. I flew the next hour, with white knuckles and reporting my position every 2min. I'm still a bit shook. I'm only at about 110 flight hour total. So im wondering would reporting this do anything and would it negatively impact me ?
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