What happens if an aircraft has been asked to declare visibility of another aircraft, and it can’t be seen?
I know that pilots have to have great eyesight, but given the limited view from an airliners cockpit, I fail to understand how aircraft at 8,7,6,5,4 o’clock can be detected.
If unseen then report “traffic unseen” or “traffic not in sight” i guess.
Pretty much all of those views you mention are visible by sitting forwards or getting the co-pilot to look etc.
I’ve only managed to ‘see’ traffic a few times so far
Pilots don’t actually need eagle eye-sight, and this scenario does not really exist in real life or is very rare. Its a MSFS phantasy. ATC might call out other traffic to follow when performing for example a visual approach, if traffic is not in sight ATC will continue vectors until traffic is either in sight, or no longer a factor. Another option could be uncontrolled airspace where the conflicting VFR aircraft is not in radio contact with the controller, in such case ATC might call out the other aircraft for information or even “if not sighted, turn …”. The situation in MSFS where two aircraft, both in radio contact with the same controller are being asked to report each other in sight does not happen outside uncontrolled airspace, and indeed anything from behind is not a factor unless it’s a F16 coming towards you at MACH 2.0. Same with “traffic alert”, thats also pointless, ATC would start vectoring planes away from each other in such case with phrases like “turn …, climb / descent … IMMEDIATELY”.
I’m assuming 6 o’clock is horizontally directly behind the aircraft (thus can’t be seen), or is the clock face vertically aligned thus 12 0clock directly forward and up, and 6 forward and down?
No you are right, 6 is directly behind, 12 is directly in front.
Many thanks - I’ve never been sat watching replies come in here in real time.
Unless the plane that needs reporting is from 8 through 4 via 12 and I can see them I will report it, if not its a not in sight for me
Msfs ATC is terrible in this respect,
It does not vector you for nearby traffic so if you are flying a PMDG 737 for example with AIG at say 90% you will see lots of aircraft on screen and I have many traffic advisories and resolution advisories on a lot of flights as all ATC tell you whether traffic is in sight or not
It’s totally unrealistic as this would be exceedingly rare IRL
The times my TCAS goes off is ridiculous but it’s just another element of a not very good ATC in msfs
And yes , you can see the aircraft if you ignore TCAS even the planes liveries as they zoom past you so close or even straight at you if you don’t intervene manually on the resolution advisory
For VFR traffic, also in controlled airspace, it’s daily practice here. Both inside CTR and when on Amsterdam Information. We’re not explicitly asked to “report when in sight” but it’s implied that when having the traffic in sight, you report it.
True, I was thinking about IFR only indeed. It could happen to IFR traffic also when in uncontrolled airspace, but then its traffic information indeed, not the report in sight. Its your responsibility to do whatever required. And no “traffic alert” non-sense.
This is the correct phraseology for IFR (ICAO):
And for VFR:
Pre Corona I used to drop sky divers in the Inn Valley near Innsbruck and we climbed up to 15000 feet. It’s always a special VFR rules situation since we can’t file an IFR flight plan for 30 flights a day off a meadow for obvious reasons so we notified Innsbruck Radar every time we took off with always the same Squawk. The Inn valley is quite narrow and aircraft approaching LOWI constantly crossed our departure and approach so we often had (well, have, but now without me) the situation of close encounters with both VFR and IFR traffic. Innsbruck Radar often tells us traffic and asks us to confirm in sight. If we can’t see them we tell them “traffic not in sight” or simply “blind” and they take special care to seperate this traffic from us. Sometimes they tell us to delay the drop due to conflicting traffic.
It all depends a lot on the situation. Normally, if both aircraft have checked in on the frequency they seperate them, even if it’s VFR.
Honestly, when I hear my reg called and then hear the word “traffic,” I just reach for the 2 and wait for them to shut up.
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