Today I went to pick up my TB-10 from the shop where they had fixed some issues with a new avionics installation. En route back to my home airport, I was fiddling with everything to make sure all was working ok, and clearly not following a proper traffic scan. I just happened to look up in time to see a C172 maybe 100 meters away heading toward me at my 3 o’clock! He was just a hair below my altitude, but we would have collided had I not taken quick evasive action. I was seriously lucky.
It was a strong reminder that with all the gadgets we have in the cockpit, the outside scan when flying VFR is not optional. Keep your eyes outside!
Lucky escape, what altitude/height you were at?
Above 3000ft agl, I play with my gadgets and rarely looking outside
Bellow 3000ft agl, I am watching outside like a hawk
Ibra wrote:
Lucky escape, what altitude/height you were at?
I was at 2000ft for only a 40 min flight.
Thanks for sharing this.
It would help a greater cause if you report this occurrence.
Snoopy wrote:
It would help a greater cause if you report this occurrence.
Report filed.
Do you have a traffic monitor? If not, I’d get one. Preferrably one which can deal with all the transponder and flarm signals.
Thanks for sharing anyway.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Do you have a traffic monitor? If not, I’d get one.
I have a PilotAware that’s sitting at home. Probably a good time to hook it up…
dutch_flyer I think these things “just happen” randomly, and apart from taking some measures there is little one can do.
I has an active TAS (not cheap – about 13k GBP) which is great but a lot of people fly non-TXP, especially given today’s UK CAA policy on 100% busting. So the other measures are e.g. not flying below 2000ft, flying above cloud, etc. Flying in cloud is probably the safest 
Dual TAS (Air Traffic AT-1 and ADSB GNX375) on my ship, and I still spend as much time scanning the outside world as possible. Glass cockpits and gadgets having the side effect of pilots playing with those instead of looking out…
Birds are another threat to watch for, as well as hang gliders and such, though they are getting equipped with Flarm… not the birds though 
but a lot of people fly non-TXP
Maybe in the UK? In Austria TXP Mode-S is mandatory in airspace E which is almost everywhere.
