Amateur/Home Built/Experimental
Flight Crew Glider; Flight Crew Sport / Recreational
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 35; Flight Crew Total 180; Flight Crew Type 25
Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict NMAC
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Procedure
I was flying (Aircraft X) as wingman in a formation of 2 aircraft. The lead aircraft (Aircraft Y) was in contact with PWM Approach for flight following while we were in cruise at 4;500 MSL. I was speaking to my lead on 123.45 and squawking standby at the request of ATC. As we were about to overfly the PWM Class C airspace; we suddenly saw a CRJ immediately off my left wing and what I would estimate as maybe 200-300 vertical separation. The aircraft was close enough that I was easily able to read '[Company]' on the side of the aircraft. I was unaware at the time of the traffic as I was not personally speaking to Approach controllers. After the event; I called PWM Approach on the telephone to discuss it and make sure no action was needed. The controller stated that we had 500 feet separation and nothing was needed from us.Later; after speaking with my Lead Pilot; and listening to audio of the ATC from liveatc.net we were able to piece together what had happened. The [commercial] flight had been cleared up to 4;000 feet on their climb; presumably to provide separation from us at 4;500 feet. My Lead Pilot had been given a traffic alert by approach and the same had been done to the [commercial] flight for us. My Lead Pilot reported them in sight after they were already past us as neither of us saw them until the last second. No evasive action was needed. We did later find out from the ATC audio that they had received an RA (Resolution Advisory) from their TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) system which they reported to the Controller. The controllers did not tell me this when we spoke on the phone. The largest concern from this event is that we had been instructed about 10 minutes prior to the event to maintain VFR at or above 3;500 feet; and the [commercial] flight had been cleared to climb through the altitude restriction that we had been given. Had we decided to start a descent from 4;500 feet at any point between then and the miss between us and the [commercial] aircraft; the results would likely have been much different. It is our opinion that the [commercial] aircraft was not in 500 feet separation from us; although that is a visual judgement and cannot be confirmed. We do not know if they exceeded their cleared altitude. To the best of our knowledge no formal reporting is being performed by [commercial]; ourselves; or ATC.
Sport pilot reports near miss with air carrier aircraft.