I flew IMAC from '97 through '03 and used the avoidance thing a few times. I can't say that it prevented a midair or not, but in one case I think it made for a worse situation since we both tried to avoid and seemed to have gotten closer to hitting. The thing is, it all happens so fast, you can't really react properly in most cases, especially since you simply don't know exactly what line the other model is one. I think it's a false sense of security to be able to bail without a deduction, but that can't be proven one way or another. I look at it like this; if I ever really think I'm going to hit another pattern model, I'll try to miss it and take a deduction. So I lose a few points!