If you want to hear me nearly shit myself, you can listen to the KVNY-Jan-04-2015-2230Z transcript, starting at 14 minute mark to about 15:13 when I am instructed to switch frequencies and he "thank[s me] for the help" (I didn't really get that last one, pretty sure he's the one who saved all our lives).
What's hard to grasp is how quickly this all happens. I'm travelling about 130 kts in a climb from 2500, the Cessna (N96575 is descending I guess from 3000). I'm not familiar with the area, it's loud in the cockpit, some transmissions are being stepped on (as a result I ask for clarification a couple times because I couldn't tell whether the controller was instructing me to CEASE my climb or to continue my climb) -- all I heard was **** (unintelligible) climb. Although the transmissions are clear on the tape, they don't come across as clearly in the cockpit with prop noise, distance from the transmitter, etc.
14:08-18, Controller: Mooney 1RA, turn left uh like 90 degrees now, just turn left. There's traffic at the 118 freeway is a Cessna at 3000, I'm trying to get him down.
14:19-21, Me: Roger, you said turn left niner-zero degrees? [I have started a left turn already during the transmission]
14:22-27, Controller: I'll tell you what, just make a right turn and uh, 1RA, turn right, turn right, about, uh, suggest a heading of 030 [I start immediately turning right during this transmission, at about a 45 degree bank angle to 030]
14:28-30, Me: Right 030, 201RA
14:30-37, Controller: 1RA, traffic on your left and about a half a mile, at 2800 [note, I am now at same altitude], a Cessna.
14:38-39, Me: Uh, roger, looking for that traffic [if you're paying attention you can start to hear me get worried, my Garmin unit has just gone off with a traffic alert and I have yet to spot the Cessna but understand that we are converging rapidly]
14:40-44, Controller: Traffic alert, expedite your climb 1RA [all I heard was traffic alert, **** your climb 1RA]
14:44-45, Me: Did you say climb, 1RA? [At this point I don't know whether to continue climbing or cease climbing -- I'm not sure what the controller has instructed me to do and I realize getting it wrong could mean a collision]
14:45, Controller: Climb climb climb! [I pull hard back on the yoke and the VSI shoots up to 2000 FPM -- as I'm pulling up I can see the Cessna now a couple hundred feet away passing below and behind me -- barely]
14:46, Me: We have him in sight, passing behind us, no factor
14:49-51, Controller: 1RA, resume own navigation
14:51-53, Me: Resume own nav, 1RA.
14:54-55, Controller: [N96]575, are you on?
14:55-56, N96575: Affirmative, 575
14:56, Controller: 575, expedite your descent down to pattern altitude at 2000!
There are a couple additional transmissions that are blocked by the other controller (two combined tower frequencies on the recording), but ends with:
15:09-13, Controller [to me]: [Mooney 1RA, contact socal departure on] 120.4, and resume own navigation. Thanks for the help.
I think after this transmission, I thank the controller for doing a great job and wish him a happy new year. But boy, that was a nervewracking experience -- probably my closest call in the air to date.
So, let's summarize: I'm first made aware of the traffic less than 30 seconds before the controller issues a traffic alert indicating possibility of collision (or, what the FAA likes to call an "unsafe proximity"). I'm first told to turn left, which I start immediately doing, then five seconds later told to turn right. Meanwhile, besides straining to look for traffic I also have to focus on actually flying the plane. And then it's over a couple seconds later -- although it could have ended very differently had I reacted even a split-second later to the controller's instructions.