Cessna 150
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 8.1; Flight Crew Total 95.8; Flight Crew Type 43.7
Situational Awareness
Conflict NMAC
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors
I was southbound; approximately 11 miles from ZZZ; when I contacted approach and announced myself as inbound full stop. I was promptly assigned a transponder code. As soon as the code was entered in the transponder I was notified 'radar contact; 10 miles north of ZZZ - TRAFFIC WARNING; TRAFFIC WARNING - Radar contact your 11 o'clock; 2 miles. If not in sight suggest immediate elevation change'. I announced I did not have the traffic in sight and was descending to 2000 feet. I immediately applied carb heat; pushed the mixture rich; pull the throttle 10-20%; rolled the aircraft over to a 45 degree bank and pushed the nose toward the ground. At approximately 2100 feet MSL I had traffic in site above me approximately 200 feet and I cleaned up the aircraft and pointed south. As I cleaned up my aircraft it appeared this is when the other aircraft; a Cessna single; seemed to have noticed me as he pitched up and banked hard to the left. It was hard to be sure; but it looked as though he entered an accelerated stall and made a single rotation of spin and came down to my altitude somewhere behind me. I lost visual at this time and began to climb back to 2500 feet. Continued flight and landed at as planned. There was a slight haze below and a low ceiling of about 1200 AGL. So all the VFR traffic seems to have been in the same altitude space as it was the only compromise of altitude safety and vertical clearance and visibility. Because of the haze; visual distance was not very good and most of the state was MVFR with an expectation that it would improve in the evening. I was very lucky that I had contacted approach. A better (safer) decision would have been to get flight following as soon as feasible when I left my home airport.
When a Cessna 150 pilot contacted Approach Control he was advised of a traffic warning. Since he did not have the traffic in sight; upon ATC suggestion; he began an immediate descent. He did finally observe the traffic above him; who also began taking evasive action; resulting in a near-mid-air-collision.