EA50 pilot reported an airborne conflict 500 feet below his cruise altitude of 17;500 feet.

Attributes
ACN	1358102
Time
Date	201605
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZNY.ARTCC
State Reference	NY
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Eclipse 500
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	VFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Pitot-Static System
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 50 Flight Crew Total 1600 Flight Crew Type 1100
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Conflict Airborne Conflict
Miss Distance	Horizontal 0 Vertical 500

Narrative:

While enroute at 17;500 feet; I was distracted by troubleshooting an airspeed disagree cas that resulted in loss of autopilot (and the need to hand fly raw data). I did set TCAS to unrestricted and checked periodically for targets in a 20 NM radius. However; I saw the conflicting target only when my TCAS issued a traffic advisory (it is not able to provide ras) for a target directly underneath me; at 500 feet. At that point; I could not see the target (below me); I could not easily ascend (I was at 17;500 feet without a clearance into class a); so I continued to hand fly my course and the target eventually descended. Contributing factors were the airspeed disagree (possibly due to a bad pitot tube). Next time; I will scan the TCAS information more frequently.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EA50 pilot reported an airborne conflict 500 feet below his cruise altitude of 17;500 feet.

Narrative: While enroute at 17;500 feet; I was distracted by troubleshooting an airspeed disagree CAS that resulted in loss of autopilot (and the need to hand fly raw data). I did set TCAS to unrestricted and checked periodically for targets in a 20 NM radius. However; I saw the conflicting target only when my TCAS issued a traffic advisory (it is not able to provide RAs) for a target directly underneath me; at 500 feet. At that point; I could not see the target (below me); I could not easily ascend (I was at 17;500 feet without a clearance into Class A); so I continued to hand fly my course and the target eventually descended. Contributing factors were the airspeed disagree (possibly due to a bad pitot tube). Next time; I will scan the TCAS information more frequently.

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.