Narrative:

My rv-10 is in the phase 1 test flight period. I had just completed a series of stall tests in my test area. I was north-northwest bound proceeding back to my home airport and just entering an area known as the southeast practice area. I was hand flying in level cruise flight at 4;500 ft MSL and monitoring the practice area frequency. There were no radio calls and traffic was light as it was a holiday weekend. My workload was light as I was finished with my test plan. All my test scripts and data were set aside - meaning no distractions. It seemed like I had the sky to myself until I scanned from my left to my two o'clock and slightly high to see an imminent collision with a white/red cessna already taking evasive action by pulling up and turning right. I immediately pushed my control stick over into an aggressive dive. I could feel myself straining against my belts and a tool box in the baggage area became airborne and struck the baggage bulkhead. If no evasive action had been taken I believe the 12 O'clock low position of the cessna would have impacted the 2 O'clock high position of my rv-10. I don't believe that distraction was a factor in my cockpit as I had completed the flight test script. The EFIS; GPS and auto pilot were already set and I was hand flying the airplane. I think I simply let my guard down and lost the discipline of scanning for traffic. You sort of think the hard work is over when you finish a test script but you can't relax until the airplane is back on the ground.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: RV10 pilot reports a NMAC with a Cessna at 4;500 FT.

Narrative: My RV-10 is in the Phase 1 test flight period. I had just completed a series of stall tests in my test area. I was north-northwest bound proceeding back to my home airport and just entering an area known as the southeast practice area. I was hand flying in level cruise flight at 4;500 FT MSL and monitoring the practice area frequency. There were no radio calls and traffic was light as it was a holiday weekend. My workload was light as I was finished with my test plan. All my test scripts and data were set aside - meaning no distractions. It seemed like I had the sky to myself until I scanned from my left to my two o'clock and slightly high to see an imminent collision with a white/red Cessna already taking evasive action by pulling up and turning right. I immediately pushed my control stick over into an aggressive dive. I could feel myself straining against my belts and a tool box in the baggage area became airborne and struck the baggage bulkhead. If no evasive action had been taken I believe the 12 O'clock low position of the Cessna would have impacted the 2 O'clock high position of my RV-10. I don't believe that distraction was a factor in my cockpit as I had completed the flight test script. The EFIS; GPS and auto pilot were already set and I was hand flying the airplane. I think I simply let my guard down and lost the discipline of scanning for traffic. You sort of think the hard work is over when you finish a test script but you can't relax until the airplane is back on the ground.

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.