Small Aircraft; Low Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 40; Flight Crew Total 155; Flight Crew Type 120
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew FLC complied w / Automation / Advisory
Airspace Structure; Weather
Flying to TLH at altitude of 9500 feet with VFR flight plan and flight following. Between CEW and MAI VORs encountered line of clouds that ran north to south. On my east heading the clouds had a ridge and trough pattern. That is there were areas along these clouds where tops peaked around 7000 feet and others around 10500 feet. Flying at 9500 feet analyzed area that would be best to take keeping VFR clear of cloud rules into account. Chose a spot that put me in a turn in Northeast direction from current East heading. As I did that my ADS-B transponder showed traffic pop up 15 miles North and descending closer to my altitude now heading southwest. I heard the Cairns approach controller telling an airliner that there is VFR traffic 9500 feet. I could identify that as me and knew for certain that the traffic that had popped up on tablet from ADSB transponder was that airliner. Due to orientation of some cloud tops and the airliner descending he most certainly would not been able to make visual contact with me. As this is happening the traffic alert on my tablet showed he kept turning my way and I heard him tell ATC maneuvering around clouds. It then became clear that the aircraft and I picked the same place to maneuver around clouds but from opposite directions. I kept turning left since traffic on tablet showed he would pass on my right side and once I saw the airliner ahead I told Cairns I have traffic in sight but heard no response. Shortly after the airliner tells Cairns he is going into a TCAS climb. We then passed each other a little later with vertical and horizontal separation estimated above off right sides of each other. Since I was turning left to steer clear and avoid potential collision think I probably violated the 2000 foot horizontal from clouds with the cloud top at my altitude on left side.It is good the airliner had TCAS since this allowed him to assuredly avoid me. It is good I have ADS-B transponder since it let me see a situation develop before time ran out. It is good that both of us took evasive action and averted disaster. Concerns are that ATC typically does not separate IFR from VFR traffic. At no point did I get a call from Cairns to look for an airliner or change course. I had to figure this out by listening to transmissions and having situational awareness. It concerns me that only the IFR traffic was told to look for traffic while VFR is left there trying to figure out what to do. Another concern is here is a situation where two pick same place to avoid clouds but are in opposite directions and do not see each other at first since other taller clouds block view somewhat. This is hazardous since it could happen again to others and involves timing which is out of control. What I mean is I can't chose when opposing traffic will get there or even be there. It was possible that either one of us could have taken a different path as there were many options. We both happened to choose the same one. Is there a system that could be developed to prevent that from occurring? We could develop guides for choosing which way to go around clouds based on direction headings. Everyone needs an ADS-B transponder as this can help to paint a picture of a situation developing while there is still time to take necessary action.
A VFR aircraft maneuvering around clouds observed an airliner descending towards them also deviating for weather. The VFR pilot thought he violated VFR rules maneuvering to avoid the airliner.