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TCAS – traffic collision and avoidance system – is a wonderful thing. Maybe you have one in your plane, maybe you don’t. Most military aircraft are equipped with one, but this doesn’t mean it’s always turned on. When two or more aircraft are in formation only one airplane will have their squawk turned on – this means only one aircraft has TCAS working for them. To be considered a “standard” formation by ATC you the aircraft must be within 1 mile and 100’ vertically of the lead aircraft. In the MOA a four ship of T-38’s will often fly in a “wall” formation. In this case you’ve got 4 T-38’s all flying line abreast – the two on the outside are separated by 3 miles. The two aircraft will also differ in altitude by about 3,000’ as well. This creates a huge amount of airspace that these four planes can fill – and leaves little room for any other guests.
Alright, hopefully you understand a little better what exactly goes on in a MOA now. I don’t want you all to think that military pilots are just flying around and not clearing either. This is not the case – clearing is very heavily emphasized in the Air Force from day one of pilot training (more than when I learned to fly before the Air Force). We are looking out for you, and hopefully you’ll know where to look out for us as well. Study your charts, find out where the MOAs are and what altitudes they range, and determine a game plan from there.
I almost forget to talk about Military Training Routes (MTRs). That’s why I added this last paragraph. You see them on your sectional charts as a thin, gray line that’s less than 1 mile wide. What you may not know is that these routes are sometimes 4 miles each side of that line, or even 10 miles each side (that’s 20 miles wide total). With so many new small airports being built it is hard to fly a MTR and not come close to one. We often pick points away from these airports to avoid traffic. I’ll say it again, before I came to the Air Force I never paid much attention to these MTRs – now I do. In the T-38 we fly at 500’ AGL and 360 kts GROUND speed. F-16’s will fly at over 420 KGS and the B-1 bomber flies at 540 KGS (that’s 9 miles per minute!!!). If you are going just 60 KIAS in the opposite direction of a T-38 from 1 mile away you have less than 10 seconds to react. Again, please be vigilant always, fly with your transponder turned on, and study your charts so you know where the possible conflicts are. Last of all, I wear a parachute that I pray I never have to use, but at least I’ve got that luxury along with my ejection seat – I doubt many of you have the same luxury so please be careful and lookout for me.
Written by: Luke Bledsoe
About the author:
Luke Bledsoe is a graduate of Purdue University Aviation Technology program and has over 7 years of flight experience. He maintains a rating of Certified Flight Instructor while serving in the United States Air Force on active duty as a T-38C Instructor Pilot. For questions or comments please write Luke at, luke@savvypilot.com
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