PA-44 Seminole/Turbo Seminole
Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Instrument
Situational Awareness
Conflict NMAC; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors
Me and my flight instructor intended on circling Niagara Falls to take a few pictures. We did not have the plate for circling in front of us and we were circling counter-clockwise. We made a radio call to the traffic in the area and got no response. We had traffic in sight but originally we both perceived the motion of the other aircraft to be moving away from us and turning left; a few seconds later we both realized our traffic was headed towards us. We descended below the 3;500 ft altitude designated for the airspace in order to avoid traffic. We ended up at 3;200 ft and our traffic passed about 100 FT to our left. Contributing factors were us not having the circling pattern out and ready to use; as well as both of us misjudging the other aircraft's direction of flight.
PA44 student pilot reported an NMAC in the vicinity of Niagara Falls after failing to fly the published photo pattern.