[p911dad]

Tonight as I began rereading Earnest K. Gann's "Fate is the Hunter", I read in fascination the end of the prologue where Earnest describes the near miss he had while approaching NYC so many years ago and the terror and wonder he experienced in why the two planes missed by 50 feet or so and why they and the crew were spared from sure death. So I wondered how many of you have had similar near misses in your flying careers and if you care to share them. I have had 5 that come quickly to mind from 30 years, all of them without warning and almost crazy in their closeness.
From my logbooks 3 happened near or over airports(2 uncontrolled, 1 controlled) and 2 enroute over a nav-aid like a VOR.
The two scariest happened over VORs, one during daylight, one at night. Over the VOR near Oneonta NY I was proceeding westbound from Albany NY in a Cessna 210 Turbo and made the turn a few degrees on course over the VOR when a Beech King Air passed in front of our nose so close we saw the copilot's moustache and that he was reading a chart, say 20 or 30 feet. Same altitude, we were decending out of IFR at about 200 knots into clear air, still under Center's control. I assume he was VFR. His tail just passed us. No time to react. He never saw us. Just a blink I still carry with me. No reported traffic.
The second involve a LearJet and a Cessna 152 over the Corning VOR near the Corning-Elmira airport in Central NY. Late at night I had a student pilot doing his night flying hours in VFR conditions, and we decided to go to a nearby controlled field for practice. Precisely over the VOR as we turned for the airport 10 miles out(under approach control but not yet handed off to tower), a Lear passed directly under us within 50 feet, bright lights and all. We heard him talk to the tower so we know it was a Learjet. His approach speed must have been at least 250 knots(we were all of 100 knots if that!). He never saw us. No reported traffic.
Any stories to report?