C-172 flight instructor reported an uneventful near midair collision event with an unreported drone ...

Attributes
ACN	1764212
Time
Date	202009
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	None
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Instructor Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 1800 Flight Crew Type 1400
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC
Miss Distance	Horizontal 50 Vertical 5

Narrative:

4;500 ft MSL ZZZ to ZZZ1; about 22 mile straight in for runway xx at ZZZ1 over near the town. While flying my student asked me what the object was to our 10 o'clock headed our direction. As I looked over I thought it originally was a bird; then as it got closer I realized it was bigger and red. I first thought it might be a red ballon floating; but then I saw a red flashing light on the top and thought we might be getting close to hitting a tower; but saw nothing below the object. No tower; no string or ribbon; nothing attached below it. Upon closer inspection quickly as it passed by my left wing; approximately 2 wingspan away and just a couple feet high; it looked like a spinning top or dreidel; larger up top and smaller on the bottom; reddish orange in color with a flashing light on the top. I immediately notified approach and they said they had nothing on radar in the area. I gave a description to the best of my ability in my surprised state. I also requested a phone number from them to speak with them when finished. Nothing else noted or resulted from the event.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C-172 Flight Instructor reported an uneventful NMAC event with an unreported drone during training flight.

Narrative: 4;500 ft MSL ZZZ to ZZZ1; about 22 mile straight in for RWY XX at ZZZ1 over near the town. While flying my student asked me what the object was to our 10 o'clock headed our direction. As I looked over I thought it originally was a bird; then as it got closer I realized it was bigger and red. I first thought it might be a red ballon floating; but then I saw a red flashing light on the top and thought we might be getting close to hitting a tower; but saw nothing below the object. No tower; no string or ribbon; nothing attached below it. Upon closer inspection quickly as it passed by my left wing; approximately 2 wingspan away and just a couple feet high; it looked like a spinning top or dreidel; larger up top and smaller on the bottom; reddish orange in color with a flashing light on the top. I immediately notified Approach and they said they had nothing on radar in the area. I gave a description to the best of my ability in my surprised state. I also requested a phone number from them to speak with them when finished. Nothing else noted or resulted from the event.

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.

C-172 flight instructor reported an uneventful near midair collision event with an unreported drone during training flight.