REFLECTOR: Close Encounter

Kent Murley kent at orbital.aero
Mon Jan 23 09:54:48 CST 2006


I consider one of the greatest safety features of the Velocity the fact 
that I usually hop up several thousand feet higher than I used to in 
other planes.

You flyers from So Cal may be used to this but when I moved from the 
mid-west to the metro area that runs from Vancouver BC through Seattle 
to Portland (still renting back then) I had some culture shock - there 
was traffic everywhere. Every five minutes you'd actually see another 
small plane close enough to tell it was a 172 and not a 182. It makes 
you wonder how many you miss.

You know that feeling you get when ATC calls traffic a couple times and 
you never see it? Get that feeling several times in one flight and it 
starts to take the fun out of it.

With my Velocity I find myself (without thinking about it) up at 6000 
AGL for hops of 30 miles and 10000 for anything longer. No more traffic.


Kent


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