I had an awkward situation on expert server the other day and I donāt know what I should have doneā¦ I tried to study the rules and procedures again but I couldnāt come to a conclusion so Iām asking for your helpā¦ what happened is as follows:
I am being vectored to final by the approach controller when I see conflicting traffic at about 11o clock coming straight towards me. Was I supposed to use VFR right of way or just continue to final? Luckily the other aircraft made a right hand turn to avoid collision.
Thank you in advance š.
I believe you should just continue to Final if you were requesting for vectors unless you were requesting VFR as the controllers will vectors you if they see a conflicting traffic. Maybe an IFATC can confirm this? š
If you were on final having received vectors then you should have continued on course and the controller would have vectored you or the other plane as he sees fit. If you were flying VFR however it would have been your descion to move out the way ideally before the controller had to intervene.
Thank you š @SingaporeAirlines and @Matt_Elphick thatās what I did. @Aussie_Wombat I didnāt check who the controller was as I didnāt think it was that serious. I donāt think the controller was to blame as he/she only put me on intercept heading for the localiser.
@Thabet_M_Tamimā¦ MaxSez: In this case as described the Pilot Flying is the decision maker, Period! Your Choice, Period! (Lots of judgement calls here). If you where in cockpit view you have a radar repeater that has a simplified ATAS which shows close aboard aircraft displayed in red for one thing, In that case you manuver then return to track or go missed. This situations is considered an incident. if reported the investigation will determine fault. Sounds like Approach lost situational awareness. Had this happen to me on Exp once, the sharp approach controller however gave me a turn which I failed to respond to quick enough. Got Ghosted, challenged and lossed. Each situation is different. This one sounds like a typical TS-1 gottya.
Was it in EHAM?
I was controlling at schiphol although I didnāt clear the plane who was taking off to do it. As I am observer I could not report the plane /user, so I just sent the message āyou are in an active airspace please contactā¦ā I really apologize for this situation.
Edit: I was controlling on TS1
@Maxmustang I had in mind that in the end I am the decision maker. I didnāt react however to avoid disturbing other trafic and going against ATC command. I donāt want a report as I donāt think this incident has that great importance and I am only trying to learn from it. š Thank you for the comment.
It all make sense to avoid reports, however try to imagine yourself in a real flight and picking up a collision warning. You MUST react and manouver to avoid the potential collision. You are -first in line- responsible for the health of your passengers!
It happened to me on expert server and I had to activate the air brakes to drop my speed without changing the altitude, though changing 10 degrees on my assigned heading, just to see the incoming flight darting less than 1 NM in front of me.
The approach picked me up and immediately requested me to follow instructions. I excused myself, got screenshots of the situation (very important) and continued my approach.
After the flight, via PM we could clarify the issue, and the ATC confirmed that through my manouver he got aware of the situation and therefore didnāt ghost me.
For me it has been a good experience about how to handle in such situations, especially on expert server, where both ATC and pilots are supposed to cooperate to create a near-real world experience with professionalism and positive attitude.
When your flight is jeopardised, you have the full authority to manoeuvre your aircraft to avoid conflicting traffic. The IFATC might notice your intentions and give you new vectors.
The good thing is that most IFATC are in the community and you can easily PM them if this incident occurs(not forgetting taking a screenshot of your ATC log)
If you canāt find the controller you can report the incident to an ATC moderator.
I would imagine that there is a TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) in my head. I would hear āTraffic, traffic!ā if thereās an aircraft to my left heading towards me. āDescend, descendā if I want to descend to avoid the traffic to my left. āMaintain vertical speed, maintainā if I want to keep descending at the same vertical speed. Basically, do what you can to avoid the traffic ahead of you. Listen to the TCAS warnings and hopefully itāll inspire you to use it when the same problem occurs again. This is to add on to what @Laminar and @Kizzyjet stated as an example of what pilots use to avoid collisions.
This is why I deny frequency change to those departures whose first order of business after handoff from tower is to request a freq change.
Approach controller should recognize the conflict and vector either one or both of you to avoid. Obviously there will be situations where their attention may be elsewhere, in which case, I wouldnāt begrudge you altering course momentarily to avoid.
Unfortunately, many times when I try to vector the second plane (if theyāre departing traffic), it takes several tries and too much time to get past the Unables [which, for those that are unaware, does not mean āI donāt wannaā], because instead of looking at their map or just, you know, following instructions, they donāt want to adjust from their single waypoint flight plan for even a couple seconds. Again, there, you are not begrudged an evasive maneuver.
In the event that they are climbing, departing traffic and you descending, arriving traffic, most of the time the separation is most expeditiously achieved by a slight acceleration of your descent, passing below them as they climb out, though not always the case, obviously.
Thank you all for helping me. After reading all what you said, I now feel that I learned from this incident and know what to do should it happen again.