I was just on a flight from KATL to KJFK and was cruising at FL350 peacefully reading my book to the relaxing drone of the engines and then the peace was shattered by the TCAS annunciation "Traffic Traffic" I looked at the ND, zooming in to get better resolution on the situation and I saw one diamond to my left and one to my right, the one on my right was a thousand feet below me but there was no alt data for the one on the right... Very soon after that I heard "Descend" and then immediately after that I heard "Climb" and I was frozen trying to figure out what to do... that's when I snapped this photo while scanning out the cockpit window trying to figure out what was going on...

 

The A320 heading away and the 737 heading toward were on the same airway I think with altitude seperation, but I was exactly at the same altitude as the approaching 737 because I flew RIGHT thru his contrail!

 

I never received any other instruction from TCAS after the "Climb Descend" order so I think maybe it crashed to bluescreen or something trying to figure out how to extract me from this a/c sandwich

 

Very soon after that I heard "Descend" and then immediately after that I heard "Climb" and I was frozen trying to figure out what to do

 

Usually you would comply with the most recent RA command.

 

I think maybe it crashed to bluescreen or something trying to figure out how to extract me from this a/c sandwich

 

I can just picture a robot going "zzzzztt! zzt! zzztt! Error! Error! Cannot compute!" and the brain explodes. I think I saw that on tv somewhere.

I've had similar situations David. TCAS definitely gets your attention when it starts screaming. At least you didn't poop your pants lol.

That's awesome!!! I had a similar situation not to long ago in the NGX with two planes in the same direction heading for me at the same altitude as me. Mr TCAS didn't like it one bit

TRAFFIC IN SIGHT !

Imagine the closing speed!

TCAS in FSX can't usually resolve a situation like that. It's doing its best by telling you to climb to avoid one and descend to avoid the other! In real life your TCAS coordinates Resolution Advisories with the other aircrafts TCAS.

 

In FSX the AI traffic doesn't respond to such conflicts. If you were online the pilots of the other aircraft might well get TCAS RAs which would conflict with yours.

...your TCAS coordinates Resolution Advisories with the other aircrafts TCAS.

 

Did not know that!

And this is what happens when someone does the opposite of TCAS orders.

 

Damn that's a good clip lol

The curiosity-invoking title of this thread lived up to its name!

 

I have occasionally ignored traffic patterns and forcefully proceeded with my approach, resulting in several serious near-misses, but have never seen a situation involving two other aircraft in such a seemingly orderly and parallel fashion!

I never received any other instruction from TCAS after the "Climb Descend" order so I think maybe it crashed to bluescreen or something trying to figure out how to extract me from this a/c sandwich

 

 

Aircraft gets torn in two with the collision, as the cockpit is falling TCAS announces

 

"Clear of conflict"

In real life your TCAS coordinates Resolution Advisories with the other aircrafts TCAS.

 

I was hoping someone would've mentioned that by now.

 

Additionally, my question is were you flying the appropriate altitude for the direction of flight (I'm assuming so, as ATL-JFK should be odds)? If so, your AI is messed up. If I remember my old days of creating AI stuff back in the day, you could write in cruise altitudes...

I had about half a transcon with TCAS going off.

 

Flying EWR-LAX with the NGX doing a United 738 flight, and UT2 puts a southwest 73g about 1-2 miles in front of me at similar altitudes from About Pennsylvania, to somewhere over Nebraska.....

 

 

Back when I still used fsx default traffic, I had a CRJ fly directly at my md11. Same altitude, exact opposite heading....

In real life your TCAS coordinates Resolution Advisories with the other aircrafts TCAS.

 

 

I was hoping someone would've mentioned that by now.

 

Not strictly always true, though. Older TCAS models are not capable of this. But they would still both issue traffic/resolution advisory.