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Lookout - why are so many pilots so careless?

Timothy wrote:

That you, as an examiner, believe that a lookout is effective don’t make it necessarily so.

I didn’t say it was effective. I queried your “useless” comment. Yet again, you’re twisting words Timothy.

I’m out of here.

Fly safely
Various UK. Operate throughout Europe and Middle East, United Kingdom

Cobalt wrote:

Now I am even more worried. The fact that see-and-avoid isn’t great is not an argument to not do it…

That depends on whether the other things you might be doing with your resources would have a greater positive impact on risk reduction.

Let’s take a reductio ab absurdum argument that because you have your eyes out all the time, you fail to notice that the engine is about to blow up, or your airspeed is taking you towards a stall and spin.

I don’t know. I, personally, keep a good lookout. But I don’t think we have the science to back up the assertion that it is the most risk-reducing thing we do. Some people would say that praying is a highly effective way to stay safe, and dedicate their lives to it. I prefer to see evidence.

I do think that universal electronic conspicuity would trump lookout every time, but were aren’t there yet.

EGKB Biggin Hill

Cobalt wrote:

Lookout is unreliable at the best of times, but better than no lookout at all.

Because I appreciate that my lookout is so unreliable, this is precisely why I have adopted the following strategies:

1) All passengers play a little game. Note: if you’re flying with children, it’s all the better because it keeps them occupied and their eyes are generally better. The game is offering a certain reward (money, ice cream etc) for the person who spots more aircraft than the pilot does (when flying with 3 nephews, it was them against me, who spots more traffic). That way you have MORE than just the Pilot looking out. By making it a game with a reward, the incentive is higher.

2) Utilise EC – I have PAW running to which I will be adding Flarm when the mouse arrives; I have a Zaon MRX running as well.

3) Avoid Class G – this is easier done in Germany as most of Class G stops at anywhere between 1000 Feet MSL, 1700 Feet MSL and 2500 Feet MSL

4) Look for (and receive) a traffic service. This is more relevant to UK because I fail to understand those who ask for a basic service, knowing that the controller is under no obligation to follow them and warn them of any potentially conflicting traffic. I will not call up a local aerodrome I am flying overhead requesting a basic service because I know they have no 100% accurate idea of traffic in their vicinity, instead try to route my flights in areas which are under the coverage of a LARS service provider and take advantage of the service.

That last part is probably the most controversial for UK pilots, a clear majority don’t believe requesting a traffic service is the way to fly, instead they believe that I should be content with a basic service and looking out. However flying at 140KIAS with traffic closing at 100 KIAS means 4 nautical miles per minute closing speed. You won’t spot any light aircraft further away than 2 miles. That means you have 30 seconds to spot the aircraft converging. And as it’s converging, it will remain stationary in your field of view so your chances of seeing it will be reduced. And sods law says that at that point in your flight, you will look down, check your Ts and Ps, switch fuel tank, change a radio frequency, something like that. You can’t always be looking out.

So, yes, my lookout might not be perfect (ok, I don’t have my screens covered with foil / iPads or similar but I will accept criticism that my lookout probably isn’t as good as it could be, that’s something that could do with being addressed. But one thing I can say is that even if it’s not perfect, using those 4 strategies as well as looking out as often as I can, admittedly with a less than perfect lookout, will lower my risk of a midair collision than if I was to not use those 4 and rely on solely a lookout.

This point is rammed home by the mid air at WCO – my sympathies for the loss of your friend, @Dave_Phillips. If the aircraft that was hit from behind had had either EC or been in receipt of a traffic service, they might have been able to react to the threat that was coming from behind. But they weren’t just relying on their own lookout, in this case they were also relying on the lookout of the other aircraft…..

Last Edited by Steve6443 at 31 Dec 10:34
EDL*, Germany

Mid-airs form a small proportion of aviation fatalities.

EGKB Biggin Hill

My condolences, Dave_Phillips, for the loss of your friend.

Returning to the topic of how useful a good lookout is…

“But I don’t think we have the science to back up the assertion that it is the most risk-reducing thing we do.”

On the contrary: we have a lot of evidence showing that see-and-avoid isn’t very effective. www.google.co.uk/scholar will throw up lots of articles if you enter ‘see and avoid’. This is shown by both theoretical models of how well we ‘ought’ to be able to see conflicting traffic and practical experiments where experimenters have flown people around with a clipboard and a second aircraft flying a conflicting path. We’ve discussed the matter several times on the forum before.

I do think that universal electronic conspicuity would trump lookout every time

Definitely it would but there are powerful interests against it. It will simply never happen, for VFR OCAS.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

:cynical mode on:

Well @Cobalt, I suppose your question has been clearly and amply answered:

  • looking out is not very effective anyway
  • looking out only serves to avoid mid-airs, the risk of which is low not to say neglectable

:end cynical mode:

However, it would seem I am not good at detecting irony so perhaps there was some in the earlier replies (thanks, @Jason! )

To link with another popular theme: I cannot help seeing a relation with the increasing number of pilots who have started out by playing PC simulators. That is a very effective way of glueing one’s eyes to the instrument panel – ask me how I know. Plus the ever more common expectation that ALL truth comes from apps today.

Last Edited by at 31 Dec 11:55
EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

looking out only serves to avoid mid-airs

It does have one or two other uses

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

It does have one or two other uses

exactly….

EDL*, Germany

I did not state agreement with that opinion…

Last Edited by at 31 Dec 12:16
EBZH Kiewit, Belgium
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