Narrative:

While flying southwest just east of the hpw VOR at approximate 900 ft; the non-flying pilot noticed something red and immediately looked up to see a small tailwheel aircraft heading directly toward us. He immediately began a descent away from the other aircraft. The oncoming aircraft appeared to be at or below 1;000 ft. We estimate that we passed within 100 ft of the other aircraft. I; the flying pilot; had been looking at something out the left window at the time. The aircrew person did not see the oncoming traffic. Approach had just terminated flight following with us and we had not yet contacted the next approach. The traffic had not been called to us by approach prior to discontinuing service. The oncoming aircraft took no evasive action. It would appear that he never saw us. This incident was discussed at length amongst all on board the aircraft in an effort to learn from the incident. None of us saw the aircraft coming. All on board the aircraft were engaged with the flight and discussing observations in the area at the time.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A pilot reported taking evasive action during a near miss with a single engine aircraft at 900 FT near HPW VOR.

Narrative: While flying southwest just east of the HPW VOR at approximate 900 FT; the non-flying pilot noticed something red and immediately looked up to see a small tailwheel aircraft heading directly toward us. He immediately began a descent away from the other aircraft. The oncoming aircraft appeared to be at or below 1;000 FT. We estimate that we passed within 100 FT of the other aircraft. I; the flying pilot; had been looking at something out the left window at the time. The aircrew person did not see the oncoming traffic. Approach had just terminated flight following with us and we had not yet contacted the next Approach. The traffic had not been called to us by Approach prior to discontinuing service. The oncoming aircraft took no evasive action. It would appear that he never saw us. This incident was discussed at length amongst all on board the aircraft in an effort to learn from the incident. None of us saw the aircraft coming. All on board the aircraft were engaged with the flight and discussing observations in the area at the time.

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.