Small Aircraft; Low Wing; 2 Eng; Retractable Gear
Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 18; Flight Crew Total 800; Flight Crew Type 125
Distraction; Workload; Confusion
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors; Procedure
I arrived on an instrument flight plan; landed and canceled my flight plan on the ground frequency. A few minutes later I took off VFR and circled to the east of the field to climb about the overcast visible along my route. I proceeded on course to BDR once I was high enough to pass 2;000 FT above the overcast. Shortly after reaching PVD; I saw an air carrier pass 500 FT above me. My TCAS gave me about 60 seconds warning; just enough time to see it and make sure I was able to evade it. Shortly after the incident; I noticed that I was still squawking the IFR code from the previous flight. I'd failed to reset it to 1200. I believe that may have further confused the situation.
A light twin pilot failed to reset his transponder code to 1200 after landing then canceling IFR so when he became airborne and at 12;500 FT still squawking IFR; he received a TCAS alert and saw an air carrier pass 600 FT overhead.