Flight Crew Commercial
Conflict NMAC
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Aircraft; Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors
Cruising at 2;500 feet MSL on a cross-country flight; the instructor was writing down ATIS at ZZZ while the student continued straight and level eastbound. The instructor; once finished copying the ATIS; looked up and noticed movement in their right peripheral vision. The instructor started a scan at 3 o'clock moving towards 12 o'clock looking for the suspected traffic. When the instructor's scan got to 1 o'clock there was an ultra-light aircraft in a slight descending turn to the left towards the instructor's aircraft. The ultralight was almost head on with the aircraft in its left turn. The instructor took control and pulled up to increased separation between the aircraft and the ultralight to approximately 150 feet and flew directly over the ultralight. This traffic was noticed approximately 3-4 seconds before the aircraft converged.The Cessna 172 windshield/door post might have blocked the ultralight from being acquired earlier by the instructor and moving head left or right may have helped. More heads-up time by the instructor might have led to earlier acquisition of the traffic. The ultralight was flying almost directly westbound into the setting sun which might have made the instructors aircraft difficult or impossible to acquire. More time spent discussing visual scanning and avoidance with the pilot under instruction may have led to earlier acquisition.
Cessna 172 flight instructor reported a near mid air collision with an ultralight aircraft.