Why do people freak out about ADS-B and mid-air collisions?

[Marc_B]

In flight weather is a distraction. There’s a lag and you get fixated. TIS-b and XM causes fixation. 
 

In all seriousness there is a time and place for an iPad and for me that’s mostly preflight. But my panel makes the iPad completely unnecessary for flight. 

[Hank]

9 hours ago, EricJ said:

You can scan the instruments but not a display?   How about the engine monitor?   Gear indicator?   Fuel gauges?  Fuel selector?  What is so different about the traffic display that it is cursed and the others aren't?

Or any of the other instruments, etc...

The only time I fixate on instruments is when I'm IMC, and looking outside the window makes things worse. 

The gear indicator, fuel selector, etc., are all static, while the traffic display is an attractive, constantly changing distraction, which some people fixate on "for safety."

Yes, when I update to TV screens on my panel, I'll also have to fight the distraction of those large displays vs. looking out the windows, but that day hasn't come for me yet. In the meantime, not fixating on my tablet isn't a problem. I do my navigation using my in-panel Garmin WAAS unit; the tablet is mostly for approach plates, but it also shows a fancier moving map that is mostly unnecessary. 

[Pinecone]

14 hours ago, 1980Mooney said:

Really?  Ok maybe not in a F1 race car but in a Porsche 911 or 718.  Now days any idiot can drive a 911 - all you need is to be 16 years old and have Daddy's credit card.  Porsche promotes it - and the kids are driving 911's and 718's.

Gone are the days when skills were needed to manage understeer, throttle-off oversteer, 4 speed clutch, brake fade or lock-up and to get the most out of the engine.  Today full stability and traction management systems control brakes and power on each wheel individually, electric power steering, Tiptroninc auto or PDK effortlessly shifts automatically.

 

And those 16 year olds are the ones who turn off the stability control, because "it keeps interfering with their driving."  Not realizing that it is saving their butt.

Saw it a lot in the BMW world, and the same people would be back on the forum with a few weeks with a tale of how the car is totaled because "the car lost control."

[Pinecone]

One thing I have found helps in avoiding too much heads down is to put a dedicated screen to Traffic.  That way I ONLY see the traffic close by (normal set to 2/6 miles) and +/- 2000 feet.  With speed/distance vectors shown, it is a quick glance to see if there is an issue, then eyes out to visually acquire the traffic.

[Marc_B]

1 hour ago, Pinecone said:

One thing I have found helps in avoiding too much heads down is to put a dedicated screen to Traffic.

+1.  This is typically the Aera 760 on the yoke with the traffic page in the 2/6 ring for me.  I find that it's easier to quickly reference the traffic page rather than an iPad with Foreflight showing traffic.  The Aera traffic page is just cleaner, has only the pertinent info and seems like a quick glance gives you all the info that you need.

[Vance Harral]

Coincidentally, this week's update of the AOPA McSpadden report re-organizes the data in a way that specifically breaks out collisions, including by phase of flight.  Here's the fixed wing, non-commercial data for the most recently available full year (2022): https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/air-safety-institute/accident-analysis/richard-g-mcspadden-report/mcspadden-report-figure-view/?category=all&year=2022&condition=all&report=true

For those who don't want to pore over the charts, here's a quick breakdown of collisions in 2008 vs. 2022, which arguably spans the time period when in-cockpit traffic displays became ubiquitous:

• landing: 2 nonfatal in 2008, 1 nonfatal in 2022
• takeoff and climb: 1 nonfatal in 2008, 1 nonfatal in 2022
• maneuvering: 1/2 nonfatal/fatal in 2008, 1 fatal in 2022
• descent and approach: 4/2 nonfatal/fatal in 2008, 2 fatal in 2022
• enroute: 1 fatal in 2008, 1 fatal in 2022
• taxi: 13/1 nonfatal/fatal in 2008, 10/0 nonfatal/fatal collisions in 2022

It's interesting to note that the overwhelming majority of collisions occur while taxiing.

It's unclear to me if the landing and takeoff collisions occurred on the runway surface, or just after takeoff/just before landing, but I'm guessing they're probably on the surface, especially given that...

...there is an important note in the data stating that each aircraft involved in a collision is counted separately in the data.  e.g. a classic "midair" is reported as two incidents, and any data point showing only one incident involves a collision with something other than another aircraft (probably a tower or cable in the air, probably lights and signs on the ground).

So I think - my guess only - that the midair collision concern that traffic displays address, is contained in the fatal maneuvering, descent/approach, and enroute data, where there are an even number of incidents.  That's 4 incidents (2 collisions) in 2008, and 2 incidents (1 collision) in 2022.

It's debatable whether traffic displays have driven a 50% reduction in midairs, or if the numbers are so small that it's just noise in the data.  It would be interesting to create a separate graph for every year to see how things move around.  But what's indisputable is that that the average pilot is ten times as likely to kill themselves due to loss of control (the breakout says that in the descent and approach phase, for example, there were 29 fatals in 2008 and 17 fatals in 2022), as they are to die in a midair.  I think one should plan their risk management focus appropriately.

All this only applies to the average pilot, though - not gods of the sky who would never lose control of a perfectly good airplane.  For that latter group, obviously "the other guy" is their biggest risk, and it makes sense for them to focus a lot of attention on midairs, and little on stick and rudder.  Up to each of you to decide which group you're in.

 

[Ibra]

Those ADSB targets are not real 

[Schllc]

So the interesting thing about this thread is that sometimes we get caught in the minutiae and it obscures the objective. 
I think everyone here has the same desired outcome, which is less accidents and better pilotage. 
the simple fact is that all of these things mean both, better training, more frequent training, spending more time looking outside and utilizing new technology to boost awareness. 
I took two flights today, both showed traffic on Adsb that o would never have seen and I wasn’t flying, I was earnestly looking. Three planes were within 100 feet of our elevation and the closest one to our position was under two miles. 
even knowing where it was and where to look, it was extremely difficult to locate. The contrast of the horizon, the sun, distant clouds etc. 

I would agree that Adsb isn’t “necessary”, the “Spirit of St Louis “ didn’t have a windshield or a window in the front of the plane, so we can obviously fly around without anything more than Lindbergh had, but why would we?  Do you think he would have scoffed at the tech or embraced?

Anything that improves situational awareness has to be good, but it shouldn’t be a substitute, just a compliment.