Rwy20 wrote:
“Bad luck” just doesn’t exist here, there always must be someone at fault. So you should better plan on having your collisions outside of Swiss airspace, thank you.
… as opposed to other jurisdictions which seem to include a little bit of “common sense”, if anyone remembers what that once was …
COPA article on midair in Fort McMurray training area
Peter wrote:
they come towards you very very slowly
That depends what you fly 
After each midair collision investigation report (and we have lately seen a few), they write as a cause: “The insufficient airspace observation by the pilot(s) led to the planes entering into collision” or somesuch. Even after detailing in the report how it was virtually impossible for the two to see each other beforehand. Then the judges take that statement and convict the pilots.
I think it is some principle from the days of the Romans that everything is always somebody’s fault – the “fact” that it was not possible to avoid it is irrelevant. That’s how law works.
In Switzerland they fill their airspace with rocks. I mean really, really big rocks
Sure, but they tend to be visible and they come towards you very very slowly, and the ex wife voice in the GPWS has lots of time to get really excited 
In Switzerland they fill their airspace with rocks. I mean really, really big rocks. Humongous great rocks.
Those rocks are much bigger than aeroplanes. I mean much bigger.
If I am going to have a mid-air in Switzerland, it’s so much more likely to be with a rock than an aeroplane.
Timothy wrote:
I mean “See and Avoid” is awful. It just doesn’t work.
Tell that to the Swiss accident investigation board. After each midair collision investigation report (and we have lately seen a few), they write as a cause: “The insufficient airspace observation by the pilot(s) led to the planes entering into collision” or somesuch. Even after detailing in the report how it was virtually impossible for the two to see each other beforehand. Then the judges take that statement and convict the pilots.
“Bad luck” just doesn’t exist here, there always must be someone at fault. So you should better plan on having your collisions outside of Swiss airspace, thank you.
It is a human trait that we want to be in control of risks (or have the illusion of control), feel that we are in a position to ensure a good outcome. We do not like to be subject to a random force and rely on our luck. This trait is more pronounced in the German speaking societies than elsewhere. I can assure you that the thought of flying through clouds and assuming nothing will happen because the chances of somebody else crossing your trajectory are slim, is something people from Germany have a very hard time subscribing to. It very much is a cultural thing.
I think that is a very accurate statement.
But lots of non Germans also find the argument emotionally hard – that somebody out there could just get you and there is bugger-all that you can do about it because everybody who has flown with TCAS knows that most traffic is never spotted.
TCAS is not a great solution for low level VFR especially for the UK OCAS environment because so many people fly non-TXP and most of them deliberately so. Lots of flying school planes have Mode C but with a broken encoder (which reduces the TXP to a Mode A unit) so they are much less likely to get into trouble when busting CAS, because most CAS doesn’t go down to the surface so there is no ATC comeback… When flying on a PPL solo, you fly “on the FI’s license” so if the student does a bust the FI will get into trouble; plenty of FIs have expressed this sentiment.
I’m not disputing the relative safety, just saying that there’s a cultural aspect to it that people from the UK might not be aware of.
But do German pilots have better eyes than British or Scandinavians?
I mean “See and Avoid” is awful. It just doesn’t work. Especially if you have to keep looking inside more complex aircraft with more systems and smaller windows.
Many of these conversations make me think of Proverbs 3:5:
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
Except that we substitute for the LORD “the law”, OWTs, “What my instructor told me”, “instinct” and “anxiety”.
Timothy wrote:
You are so much more likely to have a mid-air in VMC than IMC that these conversations bewilder me.
It is a human trait that we want to be in control of risks (or have the illusion of control), feel that we are in a position to ensure a good outcome. We do not like to be subject to a random force and rely on our luck. This trait is more pronounced in the German speaking societies than elsewhere. I can assure you that the thought of flying through clouds and assuming nothing will happen because the chances of somebody else crossing your trajectory are slim, is something people from Germany have a very hard time subscribing to. It very much is a cultural thing.
Peter wrote:
Only if they have radar etc.
…or you have TAS/TCAS.
The only thing that Radar gives you that TAS/TCAS doesn’t is primary contacts and the chance that you will encounter a non-squawking aircraft in IMC is so, so small that you can reasonably ignore it.
You are so much more likely to have a mid-air in VMC than IMC that these conversations bewilder me.
