Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60; Flight Crew Total 600; Flight Crew Type 400
Situational Awareness
Conflict NMAC
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure
A two-ship military flight on a training mission was descending to commence [a Visual] low-level training route. During the descent; the wingman gained sight of a light civil aircraft overhead the formation flying in roughly the same direction. The wingman directed the lead to 'push the nose over.' Neither aircraft had any radar indications of the traffic ahead. It appeared the traffic aircraft never had sight of the military aircraft. The military aircraft were VFR; squawking appropriately; and were in communication with the local FSS in preparation to enter the [Visual] route. As it seems both sets of aircraft were VFR; preventing the recurrence was solely incumbent on the pilots. In this case; the military aircraft were rapidly overtaking the civil aircraft and had collision avoidance responsibility. Lack of radar indications and difficult visibility in the forward quarter due to the environment during the descent led to a very short-range visual pickup. Preventing near midair's like this one in the future requires extra vigilance during dynamic maneuvers while VFR.
Flight of two F/A-18s took evasive action to avoid a light civil aircraft while descending VFR to a Visual Training Route.