Narrative:

Departed home base for test flight of aircraft. Flew westbound for approximately 5-7 minutes; then input iws into GPS to fly direct to iws and turned the aircraft south toward iws. Looked up iws on airport information page and input unicom frequency into communication 2. Before switching to communication 2; heard on communication 1 that skydivers were in air over 37X. At that time; noticed skydivers were descending in the air ahead of the plane; approximately 2;500 ft south of my present position and 500-1;000 ft above. Scanned sky and took evasive action by turning back north. While leaving the general vicinity; an unknown van's rv-3 or rv-4 approached; flew up toward right-hand side of my plane approximately 500 ft away; then the rv flew up and over the top of my plane. Situation occurred because I was unaware of my plane's position relative to 37X when I entered iws as a destination. The resulting vector took me within 1 miles of the airport. Although I had heard announcements about the skydivers; there were several announcements and the actual 'skydivers away' call I did not hear. The GPS display was zoomed out to a point that 37X did not display on the unit; although several larger airports iws did. Being preoccupied with entering iws as a destination contributed to my being positionally unaware and not hearing the 'skydivers away' call. Having the GPS display set to a scale that did not show 37X also contributed to the problem of being unaware of my position relative to 37X and how close the flight path would bring me to 37X. I also did not hear any call from the rv regarding their intentions.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C182 pilot penetrated a skydiver jump area; where he had critical conflicts with skydivers and an experimental aircraft.

Narrative: Departed home base for test flight of aircraft. Flew westbound for approximately 5-7 minutes; then input IWS into GPS to fly direct to IWS and turned the aircraft south toward IWS. Looked up IWS on airport information page and input UNICOM frequency into Communication 2. Before switching to Communication 2; heard on Communication 1 that skydivers were in air over 37X. At that time; noticed skydivers were descending in the air ahead of the plane; approximately 2;500 FT south of my present position and 500-1;000 FT above. Scanned sky and took evasive action by turning back north. While leaving the general vicinity; an unknown Van's RV-3 or RV-4 approached; flew up toward right-hand side of my plane approximately 500 FT away; then the RV flew up and over the top of my plane. Situation occurred because I was unaware of my plane's position relative to 37X when I entered IWS as a destination. The resulting vector took me within 1 miles of the airport. Although I had heard announcements about the skydivers; there were several announcements and the actual 'skydivers away' call I did not hear. The GPS display was zoomed out to a point that 37X did not display on the unit; although several larger airports IWS did. Being preoccupied with entering IWS as a destination contributed to my being positionally unaware and not hearing the 'skydivers away' call. Having the GPS display set to a scale that did not show 37X also contributed to the problem of being unaware of my position relative to 37X and how close the flight path would bring me to 37X. I also did not hear any call from the RV regarding their intentions.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.