C182 pilot reported a near miss with an individual operating a parasail in the vicinity of phx.

Attributes
ACN	1290112
Time
Date	201508
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	P48.Airport
State Reference	AZ
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skylane 182/RG Turbo Skylane/RG
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	VFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Other
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 22 Flight Crew Total 8115 Flight Crew Type 215
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Miss Distance	Horizontal 300 Vertical 100

Narrative:

On the let down into the phoenix area; east north east of lake pleasant; I had a near miss with a guy hanging from a parasail. I was talking to phoenix approach control at the time and had just been issued a frequency change to contact luke approach control. My eyes were temporarily in the cockpit while dialing in the new radio frequency and I did not see the parasail until alerted by a passenger in the back seat. We were in a highly-traveled corridor used by commercial and general aviation aircraft and the near miss occurred as the aircraft was descending through 6100 ft. I estimated vertical separation of 100 ft and lateral separation of 300 ft when the parasail was spotted off our left wing; close enough to make out the man's facial features. I reported the near miss to luke approach control.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C182 pilot reported a near miss with an individual operating a parasail in the vicinity of PHX.

Narrative: On the let down into the Phoenix area; East North East of Lake Pleasant; I had a near miss with a guy hanging from a parasail. I was talking to Phoenix Approach Control at the time and had just been issued a frequency change to contact Luke Approach Control. My eyes were temporarily in the cockpit while dialing in the new radio frequency and I did not see the parasail until alerted by a passenger in the back seat. We were in a highly-traveled corridor used by commercial and general aviation aircraft and the near miss occurred as the aircraft was descending through 6100 ft. I estimated vertical separation of 100 ft and lateral separation of 300 ft when the parasail was spotted off our left wing; close enough to make out the man's facial features. I reported the near miss to Luke Approach Control.

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.