Mid-Air Collision

[schmoo]

I learned to fly this past year at what I believe they called the busiest uncontrolled airport in Canada. Not sure if that is true, but it certainly seems possible.

During one of my x-countries, my instructor made calls on two separate occasions to potentially conflicting traffic. After the second time, he commented that he rarely has to make even one call, and found it very strange that he had to make two calls during a single flight. As a total newbie, I always figured that planes were constantly just missing each other, and always wondered why there isn't a collision per day. Without any real experience to drawn upon, I find myself still wondering why there aren;t more collisions. I see a map full of airways that intersect all over the place and prescribed altitudes based on track, add in a bunch of other factore such as radios, sun, fatigue, distractions, etc., and mathematically it just seems to me there would be a lot more accidents. Makes me wonder why I learned to fly if I thought this to be the case.

I'm glad that I learned to fly at such a busy place, but I know the possibility of becoming complacent is always there.

Regarding the turn versus dive/climb queswtion, is it safe to assume that the "turn right" rule became the recommended practice since if both pilots make a lateral change of position, then there is no longer a conflict...however, if both pilots climb or descend simultaneously, then the conflict still remains. Would make sense to me that if you see someone first, then a descent would be a good choice, but what if the other pilot thinks the same way ? Also wondering, is it as easy to detect differences in altitude as it is to detect differences in lateral position ? I'm not very good at either yet, but I'm getting there.

[Beefitarian]

You're right shmoo.

If you notice you are too close the dive would be way better for the reasons the Colonal states. He's a bit extreme but in extreme cases he's one of the guys to talk to.