mustangdriver wrote:
To put two aircraft that close together without having radio communications with both of them is a bone head move. Just my opinion.
Well, again, I have to mention this thought process that airplanes close together = disaster.
You would not believe the number of ATC controllers (and pilots) who think that aircraft cannot operate safely without this bubble around them. Radios do not keep airplanes from colliding -- pilots with eyeballs and access to controls do. The SWA pilots called the Cirrus in sight and were able to maintain deconfliction.
Again, I think there's something to be said for a P121 revenue-generating, pax-carrying aircraft be the one to go take a look at the Cirrus -- that was probably a poor idea -- but the "problem" here is not inherent to the fact that the airplanes were close together and one controller wasn't talking to them both. As a military pilot, I've joined up on aircraft that the controllers and I weren't talking to as part of NOBLE EAGLE after 9/11. That ability to do so safely wasn't some magic that military pilots are endowed with...
Pilots have eyes, brains, and even hands and feet that can maneuver their aircraft. They have the capability to recognize when they are going to be a conflict with (the ground, and airplane, weather, etc) and maneuver their aircraft to avoid that conflict. Wake issues? Under what circumstances would a 737 pilot with visual contact on the Cirrus fly directly IN FRONT of him? He would lose visual contact LONG before that happened (unless SWA has put bubble canopies on their 737s and I've missed it). That's just not an issue.
This just isn't that big of a deal.
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ellice_island_kid wrote:
I am only in my 20s but someday I will fly it at airshows. I am getting rich really fast writing software and so I can afford to do really stupid things like put all my money into warbirds.