Not good ! In next field to where we live - how the hell does this happen in this day and age https://news.sky.com/story/plane-and-helicopter-in-mid-air-collision-in-buckinghamshire-11130285
Guessing it’s got to be, but both flew out of Booker at Wycombe air park headed to Leeds Clear bright day - whatever it’s massively sad waste of life Saying 7 dead
Uncontrolled airspace, no requirement for an ATC service and no requirement for any electronic conspicuity or airborne collision avoidance to be carried so, potentially, missing each other may all come down to Mark One eyeball (notoriously fallible) and big sky theory. If you fly light aircraft you know the theoretical risks and accept them, statistically it’s still far safer than going out on your bike. Masklin - former private pilot and 30+ years air traffic controller.
If you’re interested... When you are flying other traffic may be hidden by structures in your own aircraft, so you have to be constantly moving your head around these to scan the sky fully. Your eye also has a tendency to effectively focus on nothing if you just stare out to the middle distance, so it also doesn’t do any harm to briefly look at the extremities of your own wingtip every few seconds as you scan to keep your focus working. The scan also needs to be methodical and not haphazard. Then there’s the natural blind spot you have in your eyesight, which you may or may not have been aware of. But where the optic nerve is joined to the back of the eyeball, iirc, there are no rods or cones so a natural blind spot in your vision. The brain is well used to this blind spot and compensates for it such that you don’t notice it in normal day to day circumstances, but it’s still there. If you’re flying and there’s conflicting traffic on a constant relative bearing, that is it appears stationary if you see it, that’s the one that is going to hit you. The eye doesn’t see targets with no relative movement very well anyway but if where it sits in view is also the point of your natural blind spot, you simply won’t see it. So whilst scanning you have to also keep moving your head to make sure you are moving the blind spot around and not letting it sit in one place. If you weren’t aware you had this blind spot, try the tests here... https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chvision.html All this is covered in the Human Factors exam you have to do during training, but thereafter it’s far too easy to think you’re scanning for traffic when in reality you are only paying lip service. Fortunately big sky theory works most of the time, but every so often... NB, not prejudging what may have happened today. The eye’s blind spot aligned with possible lack of relative movement is also reason why a car may pull out in front of you not having seen you...
While in many cases they just didn't look, the excuse of "I didn't see you", is often the truth. Active looking its the key as Masklin has pointed out. Did the test, it is scary...
still have police and investigators all over field but apparently it's 4 people that have died. Still a horror that with all that sky they've flown in to each other
The reports this morning are saying the helicopter was piloted by a commercial pilot of many years experience, was hit by the cessna who had a 18 year old student who was learning to fly, as the pilot.
Too early to say anything for sure. Turns out a friend of mine lost a very good friend of his, the instructor in the helicopter, and he’s also closely involved with the helicopter’s operating company. The AAIB will produce their report and any recommendations in due course, until then anything else is just speculation.
