Narrative:

We were on an IFR flight plan and were given 330 vector and 3;000 feet assigned. Center advised traffic at our 12 o'clock and 1 mile maneuvering same altitude. We spotted the traffic and called it in sight. The traffic then made a steep left turn and rolled out directly at us. I immediately took the controls from the student and turned us 90 degrees to the left. I told the student to keep his eye on traffic and then asked 'are we clear?' the student shouted 'no; climb climb climb!' during our climb center issued two more traffic advisories which I did not hear or acknowledge. Once the conflict was resolved I began turning back to our assigned heading and altitude. Center asked us to say heading. I replied '060 we turned for traffic.' she replied; 'no sir! You need to be 060.' I told her we turned to avoid hitting another airplane and she responded saying there was more traffic behind us. She then asked our altitude and I told her 3;400 descending to 3;000. Contributing to the event was the controller's delay in advising of traffic at our 12 and same altitude. The low wing piper caused us to momentarily lose sight of the traffic in the turn to avoid it.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A PA-28 instructor pilot took the aircraft from his student and executed a climbing; turning avoidance maneuver from traffic which ATC pointed out late as it turned toward them.

Narrative: We were on an IFR flight plan and were given 330 vector and 3;000 feet assigned. Center advised traffic at our 12 o'clock and 1 mile maneuvering same altitude. We spotted the traffic and called it in sight. The traffic then made a steep left turn and rolled out directly at us. I immediately took the controls from the student and turned us 90 degrees to the left. I told the student to keep his eye on traffic and then asked 'are we clear?' The student shouted 'no; climb climb climb!' During our climb Center issued two more traffic advisories which I did not hear or acknowledge. Once the conflict was resolved I began turning back to our assigned heading and altitude. Center asked us to say heading. I replied '060 we turned for traffic.' She replied; 'No sir! You need to be 060.' I told her we turned to avoid hitting another airplane and she responded saying there was more traffic behind us. She then asked our altitude and I told her 3;400 descending to 3;000. Contributing to the event was the Controller's delay in advising of traffic at our 12 and same altitude. The low wing Piper caused us to momentarily lose sight of the traffic in the turn to avoid it.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.