A helicopter pilot flying south of san joaquin; ca reported that a nct traffic alert prevented a nea...

Narrative:

I was flight following with norcal at 2;500 ft. I was advised by norcal to immediately climb to 3;000 ft to avoid a collision with a fixed wing aircraft at my same altitude approaching from my 10:30 direction. I immediately complied and leveled off at 3;000 ft and the fixed wing flew below me. I feel if it hadn't been for norcal's services; this could have been catastrophic. The fixed wing blended into the background of the mountains and given the time of day; it was impossible to detect that fixed wing. Although my helicopter is equipped with tis; it doesn't operate in the majority of areas we service. Tis works off of the mode south traffic system; the central valley doesn't have that system in place except in the san francisco/bay area. Located near my home base there is a flight school with quite a few foreign student pilots; their english is basic and hard to understand. With the tower closings and the amount of traffic that flies in the valley; it's just a matter of time before we do have a major mishap. My solution to this increasing problem of traffic avoidance is to replace our existing tis with a TCAS III (traffic collision avoidance system) and second; require every our pilots operating in these high dense traffic areas to flight follow with norcal.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A helicopter pilot flying south of San Joaquin; CA reported that a NCT traffic alert prevented a near miss; but increased Valley traffic volume has created the near miss potential for aircraft equipped with only TIS.

Narrative: I was flight following with NorCal at 2;500 FT. I was advised by NorCal to immediately climb to 3;000 FT to avoid a collision with a fixed wing aircraft at my same altitude approaching from my 10:30 direction. I immediately complied and leveled off at 3;000 FT and the fixed wing flew below me. I feel if it hadn't been for NorCal's services; this could have been catastrophic. The fixed wing blended into the background of the mountains and given the time of day; it was impossible to detect that fixed wing. Although my helicopter is equipped with TIS; it doesn't operate in the majority of areas we service. TIS works off of the Mode S traffic system; the Central Valley doesn't have that system in place except in the San Francisco/Bay Area. Located near my home base there is a flight school with quite a few foreign student pilots; their English is basic and hard to understand. With the Tower closings and the amount of traffic that flies in the Valley; it's just a matter of time before we do have a major mishap. My solution to this increasing problem of traffic avoidance is to replace our existing TIS with a TCAS III (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) and second; require every our pilots operating in these high dense traffic areas to flight follow with NorCal.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1082194
Time
Date	201304
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	NCT.TRACON
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Helicopter
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 135
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	VFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude

A helicopter pilot flying south of san joaquin; ca reported that a nct traffic alert prevented a near miss; but increased valley traffic volume has created the near miss potential for aircraft equipped with only tis.