Simviation Forum - TCAS procedure

Nov 8^th, 2010 at 10:17pm

snippyfsxer Offline
Colonel

Posts: 404

Whenever I'm flying a TCAS equipped plane in Flight Sim, and it lights up, my normal procedure is to switch to outside view and see how close the other traffic came, hopefully catching a flyby of a rare livery

In the real world, I don't suppose this is standard doctrine however. When it starts blurting out "Traffic, Traffic", do you do nothing but perk up, until it gives you a command such as "Descend, Descend now", and only then take action? How should one handle this, realistically?

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Reply #1 - Nov 8^th, 2010 at 10:39pm

-Crossfire- Offline
Colonel
Northern Canada

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Posts: 954

In the IFR world, ATC should keep you well clear of traffic, so TCAS alerts are rare.... i think... but mistakes do happen. The plane I fly doesn't have TCAS, so I'm not 100% on its operation.

I do believe if you get conflicting instruction from your TCAS and from ATC, ie. TCAS tells you to decend and ATC tells you to climb, that you should do what the TCAS tells you.

A little insight here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashkirian_Airlines_Flight_2937

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Reply #2 - Nov 8^th, 2010 at 10:40pm

DaveSims Offline
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Clear Lake, Iowa

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If the TCAS gives you avoidance directions, you take evasive action and do what it says. If it is close enough to cause a collision warning, you don't have time to look for the other aircraft, you just follow the directions.

Dave

www.flymcw.com

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Reply #3 - Nov 9^th, 2010 at 11:29am

machineman9 Offline
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Nantwich, England

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Immelmann

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Reply #4 - Nov 9^th, 2010 at 11:41am

olderndirt Offline
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Flying is PFM
Rochester, WA

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The classic '360' and get the h#ll out of there.

THIS IS NOT A PANAM CLIPPER

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Reply #5 - Nov 9^th, 2010 at 12:27pm

C Offline
Colonel
Earth

Posts: 13144

snippyfsxer wrote on Nov 8^th, 2010 at 10:17pm:

In the real world, I don't suppose this is standard doctrine however. When it starts blurting out "Traffic, Traffic", do you do nothing but perk up, until it gives you a command such as "Descend, Descend now", and only then take action? How should one handle this, realistically?

Of the several RAs I've had in the real world, when it blurts out "traffic traffic", you just get ready for the "climb/descend" command - there's so little time between them. There are some situations where you can visually pick up the conflicting traffic, and if VFR then apply your own lateral deconfliction, but certainly in IFR you just wait and see what it gives you - which is always safest.

Coincidentally, there was a recent incident involving a military King Air and an E3. Th King Air pilot was visual with the E3 so chose to contradict a TCAS climb, and descended. The E3, following TCAS then had a fairly hefty reversal as his TCAS descent turned into a climb.

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Reply #6 - Nov 9^th, 2010 at 5:22pm