A C172 pilot took evasive action at 5;500 ft to avoid a small metallic object.

Attributes
ACN	1196409
Time
Date	201408
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	LAF.Airport
State Reference	IN
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 6 Flight Crew Total 250 Flight Crew Type 6
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC
Miss Distance	Horizontal 30 Vertical 20

Narrative:

I was practicing maneuvers south of lafayette; indiana at 5;500 ft MSL when I spotted what I thought was a bird closing straight at the nose of the aircraft. I turned away as fast as possible to avoid collision but looking at the object; I saw that it was metal and about the size of a basketball. I left the area immediately and returned to lafayette.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C172 pilot took evasive action at 5;500 FT to avoid a small metallic object.

Narrative: I was practicing maneuvers south of Lafayette; Indiana at 5;500 FT MSL when I spotted what I thought was a bird closing straight at the nose of the aircraft. I turned away as fast as possible to avoid collision but looking at the object; I saw that it was metal and about the size of a basketball. I left the area immediately and returned to Lafayette.

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.