GA pilot reported an airborne conflict during a training flight near dmw.

Attributes
ACN	1508596
Time
Date	201801
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	DMW.Airport
State Reference	MD
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft Low Wing 2 Eng Retractable Gear
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Other maneuvering
Flight Plan	None
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Person 1
Function	Trainee Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60 Flight Crew Total 260 Flight Crew Type 23
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Airborne Conflict
Miss Distance	Horizontal 500 Vertical 500

Narrative:

I; a private pilot; was getting dual instruction in the practice area west of EMI. We had just finished slow flight including turns of 90 degrees; albeit with a nose-high attitude. I was recovering the plane to straight and level flight in a cruise configuration for the next maneuver. When I looked left to begin a clearing turn; I saw that we were overtaking what appeared to be a C172 at our 10 o' clock and about 500 ft above us. It was close enough to surprise me; but not close enough to see the n-number. Within seconds; we established radio contact on the CTAF for dmw as is customary for flights in the practice area. We deconflicted our intentions and continued flying.I believe we got into this situation because I fixated on the manifold pressure and RPM gauges. My outside scan was just a quick glance at the horizon; and did not include time for a traffic scan. I had portable ads-B receiver operating; but was paying attention to the display.also; segmenting the flying into individual maneuvers that each started with clearing turns took away focus on looking for traffic at other times in the flight.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: GA pilot reported an airborne conflict during a training flight near DMW.

Narrative: I; a private pilot; was getting dual instruction in the practice area west of EMI. We had just finished slow flight including turns of 90 degrees; albeit with a nose-high attitude. I was recovering the plane to straight and level flight in a cruise configuration for the next maneuver. When I looked left to begin a clearing turn; I saw that we were overtaking what appeared to be a C172 at our 10 o' clock and about 500 ft above us. It was close enough to surprise me; but not close enough to see the n-number. Within seconds; we established radio contact on the CTAF for DMW as is customary for flights in the practice area. We deconflicted our intentions and continued flying.I believe we got into this situation because I fixated on the manifold pressure and RPM gauges. My outside scan was just a quick glance at the horizon; and did not include time for a traffic scan. I had portable ADS-B receiver operating; but was paying attention to the display.Also; segmenting the flying into individual maneuvers that each started with clearing turns took away focus on looking for traffic at other times in the flight.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.