Skylane 182/RG Turbo Skylane/RG
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 35; Flight Crew Total 633; Flight Crew Type 80
Situational Awareness
Conflict NMAC
General None Reported / Taken
Airspace Structure; Human Factors
Another instructor and myself were working on instrument approaches and procedures around the litchfield VOR (LFD) when we heard a [flight training] aircraft over their company frequency (Which we were monitoring in the interest of safety) call out that they were entering from the north to perform a hold at 3;000 feet which is the same height (MSL) that we were at. In the interest of safety we climbed through to 3;500 and kept an eye out for the aircraft. Neither myself nor the other instructor caught sight of the aircraft. It was later reported to us that we came within 300 feet of the aircraft during our climb to a higher altitude. During the debrief we concluded it would be better to always monitor the local approach frequencies even if you are flying VFR using see and avoid tactics. The hardware we had on board (Skywatch) did not activate/warn us of an aircraft in close distance. We knew training airplanes tend to fly in this area so we monitored their company frequencies; as well as; the unicom frequency for OEB. This helped us in avoiding the other training planes shooting approaches within the pattern at OEB but not the aircraft performing a hold on our way back northbound who was most likely communicating more with Kalamazoo Approach. All parties involved agreed to be more vigilant when flying VFR around these practice areas. This incident occurred on a VFR clear day with light winds out of the west.
C182 instructor with another instructor aboard; experiences a NMAC with a SR20 while practicing instrument procedures in VMC over LFD. The NMAC was detected by the SR20 pilot and reported to the C182 instructor.