Small Aircraft; High Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Commercial
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150; Flight Crew Total 4500; Flight Crew Type 4000
Distraction; Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness; Workload
Conflict NMAC; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Airspace Structure; Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure
While conducting a check flight flown with a student. Our aircraft had just begun an easterly descent during a simulated engine failure 1/2 mile west of Collier Airpark 2AL1; a grass strip commonly used for simulated engine failure drills. During the descent another [aircraft] conducting flight training flew directly overhead on a southerly heading at around 200 FT horizontally and vertically away. As our aircraft was in a descent; no further evasive action was necessary; though an increase in descent rate was implemented in order to avoid traffic. Contributory factors to incident are the high volume of training conducted in this practice area. Practice area locations and frequencies have been agreed to among the schools conducting such training in the area. In this training location; 3 separate schools conduct such operations; two based at Foley 5R4; and one based at JKA. The practice area encompasses an area with 3 separate airports operating on 3 different frequencies within a 10 mile radius; 5R4; CQF; and JKA. Both aircraft involved in incident were operating near Weeks Bay; Alabama; which is an area that overlaps all the practice areas of the three airports. A prior agreement was made with all schools conducting such operations. In this agreement; aircraft operating over Weeks Bay agreed to monitor Fairhope frequency 123.0; aircraft operating East of Weeks Bay and North of Alabama Highway 98 would be on Foley Frequency 123.05; and aircraft operating South of Weeks Bay and highway 98 would be on Jack Edwards frequency 122.7. Our aircraft had been on Foley Frequency as it was operating east of Weeks Bay; and had just switched to Collier Airpark CTAF of 122.9 to announce the simulated engine failure. Transmissions onto Fairhope 123.0 and Foley 123.05 did not reach the other aircraft; however; after several transmissions on Jack Edwards Frequency of 122.7; the incident aircraft did respond and stated they were monitoring Fairhope frequency despite not responding on said frequency. The high volume of training conducted in this training area makes proper collision avoidance critical to avoid such near misses. Our aircraft had made clearing turns prior to each maneuver; monitored and transmitted on agreed upon frequencies; and practiced standard collision avoidance scanning techniques but despite such precautions; this near miss still occurred. The overlap of 3 different CTAF frequencies; plus addition of Collier airpark's CTAF within the same area means that traffic in this high volume training area will often not be talking to each other. Continued vigilance and adherence to agreed upon procedures is absolutely necessary to avoid further such incidents in the future.
An instructor pilot reported a near miss near 2AL1 in a very congested VFR training area with three frequencies for airports 5R4; CQF and JKA.