C172 instructor reported sighting a drone while in the traffic pattern at iwa airport.

Narrative:

I was with a student pilot and we were practicing full stop taxi-back landings at iwa. We were established about one mile west of the airport in left downwind for runway 30 left. Once approximately midfield; the local controller gave us instructions to make a right 360 in the downwind for sequencing with other traffic ahead. My student then read back the instructions and established us in a standard rate turn to the right. Both my student; who was pilot flying in the left seat and myself were looking outside for traffic when about 270 degrees into the right turn we both noticed a small object below the right wing at approximately our 2-O'clock position moving left to right. Initially I thought it was a small helicopter at a lower altitude but shortly after I observed a very bright flashing blue light atop a small black aircraft. Due to the size of the aircraft and the bright blue light on top; I concluded that it was a remote controlled drone. After my student and I both saw this object; he continued his rollout to re-establish himself in the downwind for runway 30 left. The object appeared to be hovering in very close proximity to us in the traffic pattern at an altitude that would have easily risked a collision for local traffic pattern operations. We luckily did not have to take evasive action judging by the drone's slightly lower altitude but initially it very much caught us off guard. I reported the sighting immediately to the local controller and estimated to him that the object was about 300 feet below us. Following the flight and subsequent debrief both my student and I concluded that the object was very easy to see and that it could not have been more than 100 feet lower than our downwind altitude of 2600 feet MSL. After this incident; the flight continued without any more issue. After our flight concluded; another student at our flight school told me he also saw the object around the same time we reported our sighting to the control tower. I am unsure if he has filed a report or what his position was at that time. I'm really not sure what could have been done to avoid this specific incident except to make the public more aware of flying drones in close proximity to airports; traffic patterns; and approach corridors as well as develop regulations for drone pilots regarding proximity of their fight operations near airports.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C172 instructor reported sighting a drone while in the traffic pattern at IWA airport.

Narrative: I was with a student pilot and we were practicing full stop taxi-back landings at IWA. We were established about one mile west of the airport in left downwind for runway 30 Left. Once approximately midfield; the Local controller gave us instructions to make a right 360 in the downwind for sequencing with other traffic ahead. My student then read back the instructions and established us in a standard rate turn to the right. Both my student; who was pilot flying in the left seat and myself were looking outside for traffic when about 270 degrees into the right turn we both noticed a small object below the right wing at approximately our 2-O'clock position moving left to right. Initially I thought it was a small helicopter at a lower altitude but shortly after I observed a very bright flashing blue light atop a small black aircraft. Due to the size of the aircraft and the bright blue light on top; I concluded that it was a remote controlled drone. After my student and I both saw this object; he continued his rollout to re-establish himself in the downwind for runway 30 left. The object appeared to be hovering in very close proximity to us in the traffic pattern at an altitude that would have easily risked a collision for local traffic pattern operations. We luckily did not have to take evasive action judging by the drone's slightly lower altitude but initially it very much caught us off guard. I reported the sighting immediately to the local controller and estimated to him that the object was about 300 feet below us. Following the flight and subsequent debrief both my student and I concluded that the object was very easy to see and that it could not have been more than 100 feet lower than our downwind altitude of 2600 feet MSL. After this incident; the flight continued without any more issue. After our flight concluded; another student at our flight school told me he also saw the object around the same time we reported our sighting to the control tower. I am unsure if he has filed a report or what his position was at that time. I'm really not sure what could have been done to avoid this specific incident except to make the public more aware of flying drones in close proximity to airports; traffic patterns; and approach corridors as well as develop regulations for drone pilots regarding proximity of their fight operations near airports.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1539725
Time
Date	201805
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	IWA.Airport
State Reference	AZ
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	None
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Operating Under FAR Part	Other 107
Flight Phase	Cruise
Person 1
Function	Instructor
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 101 Flight Crew Total 560 Flight Crew Type 215
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC Inflight Event / Encounter Object
Miss Distance	Horizontal 200 Vertical 100