SR20
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Commercial
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 62; Flight Crew Total 550; Flight Crew Type 350
Human-Machine Interface
Conflict NMAC; Inflight Event / Encounter VFR In IMC
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors
We were conducting a dual training flight in a Cirrus SR-20 aircraft; and with ceilings overcast at 3;000 feet. We filed an IFR flight plan and requested a block altitude with Approach so that the student could experience actual IMC. Approach granted us a block from 4 to 6 thousand feet. We were performing basic instrument flying maneuvers within this block at 5000 feet and were in IMC when we received a traffic alert (same altitude; less than a mile). The Cirrus is equipped with the L3 Skywatch Traffic Advisory System; which means that the other aircraft had to have been equipped with at least a Mode C transponder in order for the system to detect it. The student had been flying but I took controls and banked to the right while we were still in the cloud. As we exited the other side of the cloud we could clearly see a high wing aircraft exactly where Skywatch had indicated. We queried ATC; and the controllers response was that 'someone was probably VFR and had decided to get a little too close to you'; and that he was not talking to anyone in that area at the time. We notified ATC of the flight conditions and had no other conflict. During the incident the other aircraft also properly banked right to avoid us.I have no doubt that had we not banked right inside the cloud the outcome could have been much different. We were operating on an IFR flight plan and well within the limits of our block altitude that had been granted by approach; which means that the other aircraft was also inside our block. I would also like to stress that the other aircraft had to have been equipped with at least a Mode C transponder in order for Skywatch to report it as a target and display its altitude relative to us. Flight conditions were mixed inside the block but I do not think it would have been possible to have been operating within the legal VFR weather minimums.
A Flight Instructor conducting training in IMC reported a near miss with an aircraft not identified or in contact with ATC.