Not necessarily expecting you personally to know. But I feel like the incremental cost to the price of a plane should make this a no-brainer. Did I just come up with a ycombinator 2016 idea?
>It monitors the airspace around an aircraft for other aircraft equipped with a corresponding active transponder, independent of air traffic control, and warns pilots of the presence of other transponder-equipped aircraft which may present a threat of mid-air collision (MAC).
> The next step beyond identifying potential collisions is automatically negotiating a mutual avoidance manoeuver between the two (or more) conflicting aircraft.
This works along side the ADS-B broadcasts for generally knowing where other planes are without ground based radar - however that's not going to be fully implemented until 2020 in the US https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillan...
It only tells you about other FLARM-using aircraft, though. (Some also look for transponder-carrying aircraft).
The imaging sensors are available for limited civilian use.
Drive by a GA airport and look at all the planes; many of them are 30, 40, sometimes 50+ years old. Now, this is not a big deal in the aviation world. Airplanes are pretty simple compared to most modern cars. They are also required to be inspected once a year by a mechanic (an "annual"), engines are replaced or rebuilt after a certain time interval has passed (usually around 2000 hours), extensive documentation is required to be kept, etc.
But there are just a LOT of them out there, so refitting all of them takes time. Unlike the car world where, if you make a change in the law, you can reasonably expect in 10-15 years the majority of cars would be compliant just because people buy new cars. In the aviation world that isn't the case. New airplanes can easily run $200k+, so people hold on to airplanes for decades.
It's also expensive. Anything involving airplanes is hellishly expensive. :)
You're looking at probably about $5k for equipment + installation costs (which must be done by a mechanic, pilots generally aren't allowed to work on their own aircraft [1]). And that only broadcasts your position; a separate ADS-B receiver must also be purchased if you want to actually see other airplanes around you. The cheapest one I can find is $500, and that also requires a tablet and software.
So yeah, we're going to get there. But it's going to take some time.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillan...
[1] Unless you are a mechanic yourself or you are flying a homebuilt experimental airplane that you were the primary builder.
[2] http://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/dual-xgps170-ads-b-receiver...
It's an entirely different matter to take that into an airplane and use it in such a way as that my life depends on the accuracy of the information. Has it been extensively tested in actual airplanes in real-life flying? Does it work with and not interfere with other aircraft systems? Does it work with the software I already use and know well?
Yes, $100 < $500. Now, if I built my own airplane (something I've given some thought to doing), I might be a little more willing to experiment with it. But the majority of pilots are not hardware hackers. They're average, everyday people.
I will happily pay $500 for a tested piece of hardware that is guaranteed to provide accurate information and work in my airplane over something I homebrewed using instructions I found on the Internet. My safety is worth the extra $400.
My cousin is an air controller in a little French airport and she told me that when military jets are coming in, everything is more tense. They fly so fast that she has far less time to react and to redirect other airplanes.
So even if you are on a collision course and know it, you might not have time to avoid the collision.
One afternoon I was departing east, climbing and preparing to turn crosswind at 1000 AGL. I had announced my departure like usual, but otherwise the channel was quiet. I was maybe 750 AGL when I noticed a tiny sparkle directly in front of me (fortuitously, the sun was at my back). After observing it for a couple of moments and realizing that it didn't appear to be moving relative to my position, I re-announced my departure and angled to the right (SOP in head-on convergence is everyone turn right, immediately). Sure enough, about 20 seconds later the inbound aircraft zipped past on my left. Hard to estimate distance in the air, but way less than a mile and equal altitude. Fucker never said a word, just landed straight in, with the wind, completely ignoring the pattern. Blows my mind to this day.
Yokel: "What traffic?"
ATC: "The traffic you just overflew."
(As a Cessna goes over me about 50 ft above me.)
And mind you this is with a ATC trying to order traffic.
There has only been one crash[1] where TCAS was used on both aircraft, and functioning. One of the aircraft followed the controller, ignored the TCAS resolution and a mid-air collision occurred.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collision_avoidance_sy...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cberlingen_mid-air_collis...
ATC are humans too, just like pilots, so mistakes sometimes happen. ATC has a larger picture, but pilots are on the scene up close. The important thing is that we work together to keep everyone safe.
Sure, and the same could be said of the ATC. But the ATC never has direct control of an aircraft, unlike the pilot.
While traffic callouts are nice to have and I really appreciate ATC giving me heads up when I'm flying, I still spend the majority of my flying time looking out the windows for other airplanes. Especially before making any turn or other maneuver where I might have limited view, always dip the wings to check the area first.
Unfortunately, I know some pilots who fly as if they've never seen a radio. Used to do a lot of flying out of a semi-uncontrolled field (it's untowered, but right under the 2,000ft shelf of a nearby class C). I would be doing pattern work, turning base and some yahoo would do a straight-in without a single call on the radio. If I hadn't seen him it and turned early it might have ended badly.