Narrative:

We contacted njk tower and told them that we were about to depart southbound toward ipl VORTAC then follow V66 westbound. Njk asked about our airplane type. I told them C172. They wished us a safe flight and didn't mention anything about any special activity. We switched back to ipl frequency and departed as described. About 3 NM northwest of the ipl VORTAC at 3;000 ft MSL climbing toward 8;000 ft MSL; we contacted ZLA for an IFR clearance to see. We did not get the clearance at that time. Following V66; south of the njk class D airspace; we spotted a blue and yellow F/a-18 jet at our 2-3 O'clock position going westbound; about 2-3 NM from our airplane. He starts to do a shallow left turn toward us and ends up on a head-on collision course at about 2-3 NM distance. He continues to fly straight toward us at the same altitude as we. He approaches us fast and just 2-3 seconds away from a collision; he makes an abrupt climbing turn to the right and passes us on our left side in high speed. We could feel a bit of turbulence as he passed. After the incident; we switched frequencies to njk tower and asked them about what just happened. The answer we got was that we should stay more south of njk. Our position at the time of the incident was 5.5 NM south of njk at about 4;000 ft; outside the class D airspace -- clearly visible on our mfd map (G1000 equipped airplane). Prior to the flight; there were no tfrs published in that area according to duats.com. I believe that the pilot of the F/a-18 thought we were in the njk airspace and wanted to scare us off. In that case; in a really inappropriate way. The other explanation could be that he just spotted us in the last second and managed to avoid us marginally.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot of Cessna 172 experienced a NMAC with an FA18 just south of NJK.

Narrative: We contacted NJK Tower and told them that we were about to depart southbound toward IPL VORTAC then follow V66 westbound. NJK asked about our airplane type. I told them C172. they wished us a safe flight and didn't mention anything about any special activity. We switched back to IPL frequency and departed as described. About 3 NM northwest of the IPL VORTAC at 3;000 FT MSL climbing toward 8;000 FT MSL; we contacted ZLA for an IFR clearance to SEE. We did not get the clearance at that time. Following V66; south of the NJK Class D airspace; we spotted a blue and yellow F/A-18 jet at our 2-3 O'clock position going westbound; about 2-3 NM from our airplane. He starts to do a shallow left turn toward us and ends up on a head-on collision course at about 2-3 NM distance. He continues to fly straight toward us at the same altitude as we. He approaches us fast and just 2-3 seconds away from a collision; he makes an abrupt climbing turn to the right and passes us on our left side in high speed. We could feel a bit of turbulence as he passed. After the incident; we switched frequencies to NJK Tower and asked them about what just happened. The answer we got was that we should stay more south of NJK. Our position at the time of the incident was 5.5 NM south of NJK at about 4;000 FT; outside the Class D airspace -- clearly visible on our MFD map (G1000 equipped airplane). Prior to the flight; there were no TFRs published in that area according to duats.com. I believe that the pilot of the F/A-18 thought we were in the NJK airspace and wanted to scare us off. In that case; in a really inappropriate way. The other explanation could be that he just spotted us in the last second and managed to avoid us marginally.

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.