NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
Helicopter Instructor reported taking evasive action to avoid a Regional Jet who also followed an RA resulted in a NMAC.
What is ASRS?
The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.
Pilot narrative
Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the
reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time);
anonymization placeholders are ZZZ,
X, Y.
The Helicopter was on a training mission with an instructor and commercial student on board, departing SBP in a left downwind departure Runway 29 flow. The Helicopter started a climb up to 2800 feet in order to safely perform the Vortex Ring State Maneuver. As the Helicopter exited the SBP Class D airspace the frequency was changed to CTAF of the local public airport L52, as the maneuver was supposed to be executed 2NM Northeast of the airport at altitude. As the Helicopter performed its first clearing turn no traffic was observed, in the second clearing turn a regional jet was observed north west of the Helicopter performing a steep climb and left hand turn at same altitude. The Helicopter turned southbound as evasive action and descended down to 2500 and the instructor decided to continue the maneuver ca. 2NM south east of Oceano Aiport in order to stay away from additional traffic on the same flight path. The instructor was informed via telephone after landing, that the regional jet followed a TCAS RA and took evasive action and the event has been categorized as a "potentially significant" incident. Also the controller stated that they issued traffic advisories to us but we were already outside of their airspace and on a CTAF frequency, they also stated that no pilot deviation or violation is considered, the incident happened in class echo airspace.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Conflict
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Airspace Structure
- Primary Problem
- Airspace Structure
ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.