a couple of us flew KJYO (leesburg) - 8W2 (new market) - W45 (luray) - KFRR (front royal) - KJYO today. the weather was good but pretty hot/sunny down in new market. the flying went well in general but i learned (as usual) a lesson. coming back into JYO from the south for runway 17 i usually do a midfield crosswind rather than go around leesburg and come in from the north and entering the downwind on the 45. my instructor warned me about being careful with inbound traffic from the north and potential conflicts entering the pattern from the crosswind and that's exactly what happened today. we were listening and talking to a cirrus coming from the north calling over the water tower and quarry while we were getting close to the crosswind. as i was turning cross to downwind it was right in front of me above and to the right. i had all of my lights on (he had none btw) and i never saw it. the pilot not flying did see it and advised me to turn immediately onto the downwind. the cirrus was watching me (visual and on his TCAS) and entered the downwind 500 feet above me and extended his downwind while i landed. we were talking to each other the entire time but i don't think that made much of a difference. because of the ADIZ, once you're coming in for a crosswind entry to 17 you can't really do anything else w/o a potential ADIZ violation. i think the cirrus thought that he would make it to downwind before i did. i think that in the future, i'm likely to start going around leesburg again (takes 5 or 10 minutes longer) when coming from the south if it's likely that there will be anyone coming back in the same time frame.
does anyone else have opinions on that in this situation?
i also am interested in the portable TCAS units i've seen advertised. i'm not sure it would have told me anything more than the radio did today but i can see the potential value in them. anyone have opinions on that as well?
1 comment:
We have the same debate while flying. Husband always wants to see if we can cut time off the entry-- but I feel much safer going the long way around. I've had several close calls, as well.
I have to say, having the traffic information does give me a little more comfort- though it's not foolproof!
Post a Comment