PA28 pilot reports sighting a drone in the ffz traffic pattern and reporting it to the tower.

Attributes
ACN	1268873
Time
Date	201505
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	FFZ.Airport
State Reference	AZ
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Final Approach Landing
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Instructor Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Airborne Conflict
Miss Distance	Horizontal 500 Vertical 200

Narrative:

Drone was spotted approximately 1 NM northeast of ffz. At first I thought it was a balloon; but then realized it was hovering in the same spot as last time; and then I realized it was a drone. It was hovering near the right base turn for runway 22R. A (police helicopter) was nearby; and came to investigate after I reported it to tower. They did not find any drone; but did investigate a suspicious vehicle near the area where the drone was operating.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA28 pilot reports sighting a drone in the FFZ traffic pattern and reporting it to the Tower.

Narrative: Drone was spotted approximately 1 NM NE of FFZ. At first I thought it was a balloon; but then realized it was hovering in the same spot as last time; and then I realized it was a drone. It was hovering near the right base turn for runway 22R. A (police helicopter) was nearby; and came to investigate after I reported it to Tower. They did not find any drone; but did investigate a suspicious vehicle near the area where the drone was operating.

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.