From: PJERN@CHGVMIC1.VNET.IBM.COM
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: Delayed Reaction
Date: 6 Apr 92 19:34:01 GMT

I'm still shaking.

Saturday, I decided to go out and build up some X/C time, so I planned
a round robin flight from Red Lion (N73) to Cape May (WWD) to Summit
DE, and return.  Had a good flight down to Cape May, and followed the
Delaware river NW to Summit.  Leaving Summit, I was climbing through
2000' and tuning the OOD VOR when I looked up and saw an Aerostar
crossing directly in front of me, level, less than 200' away.

They say that the time to recognize and react to a threat is broken
down into something like:

1. Perceive the threat
2. Recognize that it is indeed a threat
3. Decide on evasive action
4. Initiate evasive action
5. A/C responds to control inputs.

I was about up to 4 on the list when I hit his wake turbulence and it
was over. (He was crossing right-to-left, and I had decided on a right
turn and dive.)

Well, not quite over. I was badly scared, and wanted to see if they
had seen me.

I figured that he was heading for Wilmington, so I dug out the chart
and looked up Wilmington's tower frequency.

(Memory transcript follows: ME=Me in C172, WIL=Wilmington Twr
PA=Piper Aerostar, VOICE=Delta Airlines Ground person)

ME: Wilmington Tower, Cessna 54366

WIL: Cessna 54366, go ahead

ME: Ah, Wilmington, did you have an Aerostar Nxxxxx just land? (At this
point, I realized that I had READ HIS TAIL NUMBER|)

WIL: Uh, yes, he made a low approach...

ME: Be advised, I just had a near miss with him.  Less than 300 feet.

WIL: Ahh Cessna 366, what's your position?  (He obviously wants to know
if I'm in his area without talking to him)

ME: I'm 10 south, over the river.

      At this point the Aerostar crew chimes in.

PA: Wilmington, Aerostar XXX, we had him in sight. It was pretty
close, though.

      About 30 seconds later,

PA: Wilmington, if that Cessna's still on the frequency, see if you
can get him to come up on 128.95

ME: Wilmington, 366 got the message, 128.95

ME: (on 128.95) Aerostar XXX, Cessna 366

VOICE: Aircraft this Freq, you've reached Delta Airlines in Atlanta

ME: Ooops.  Beg your pardon, Sir.

PA: Let's try 122.95

ME: (on 122.95) Aerostar XXX, Cessna 366

PA: Cessna 366, Sir, we had you in sight, we were waiting for you
to break off.

ME: I didn't see you until you were in front of me.  I'm gonna need
to see the Medical Examiner to get my heart restarted.

PA: It was pretty close, huh?

ME: Yeah, (recovering some) it was.  I don't think we need to do
anything except learn from it,  huh?

PA: Yeah, and we'll both be the better for it.

ME: OK, then.  Have a good afternoon, sir.

PA: OK, we will.  Thanks, and good day.

OK, I'll put this out to the net.pundits, and accept any criticism
in the spirit of education. FWIW, here's my analysis of events:

The Aerostar was on an approach to Runway 01 at Wilmington, so I
dug out the approach plate when I got home and looked up the FAF and
heading. It would appear that his heading was somewhere between
005 and 015 degrees (depending on whether he was on the ILS or VOR
approach.  I think he was on the ILS, so that would make his heading
015).  My heading was 080 degrees, so the difference in our headings
would have been about 70 degrees, +-5.

The Aerostar was descending in a clean configuration, and I was in the
process of leveling off from a climb, setting power, etc. My
airspeed was in the vicinity of 90 knots.

I was too busy in the cockpit for where I was.  I had trouble identing
the Cedar Lake VOR, and was retuning Woodstown whan the incident
occurred.  I could have continued another 15 miles before really
needing to do any nav changes.

Weather was good VFR, vis 15+, 5:15 pm. Clouds BKN 4500'

After the incident, for a period of about 20 minutes,  my navigation
and piloting skills went down the tubes.  I attribute this to the
cessation of adrenaline flow and subsequent fatigue.  I became
very overreactive to other traffic, and lost track of my position
while conversing with the Aerostar crew.  Took me longer than usual
to reorient myself.

Lastly, if the Aerostar did indeed have me in sight, I think they
cut it irresponsibly close.  By the rules, they did have the right
of way, but standing on those rights could have killed us all.

Of course, the final irony was, after I landed, I picked up the
local paper, glad I wasn't in it, and read how it was exactly
one year to the day from the midair between an Aerostar and a
helicopter that killed Senator Heinz and a couple of schoolchildren
a few miles north of where I had my brush.
Newsgroups: rec.aviation