An instructor pilot reported a near miss with another aircraft which transited the luf special air t...

Attributes
ACN	970976
Time
Date	201109
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	LUF.TRACON
State Reference	AZ
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft Low Wing 2 Eng Retractable Gear
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Instructor Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 110 Flight Crew Total 1461 Flight Crew Type 283
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC
Miss Distance	Horizontal 0 Vertical 300

Narrative:

My student was in process of securing an 'inoperative engine' flying eastbound in luf special air traffic rules area at 5;000 ft MSL. As the instructor I had failed the left engine by use of the left fuel selector and the student went through the appropriate checklists. Luf approach advised traffic south of my position and lower and restricted my aircraft to 5;000 ft MSL or higher. I advised that I did not have traffic in sight. I instructed the student to turn the aircraft westbound (thinking that we were proceeding toward the other aircraft) and I initiated the engine restart process to climb above 5;000 ft MSL. During the engine restart process the aircraft had drifted down approximately 200 ft at which point I observed the other aircraft passing below us approximately 200 ft lower flying northbound. If I had not turned my aircraft from an easterly heading to a westerly heading there would have been no aircraft proximity conflict even with the loss of 200 ft of altitude. However at the time the only appropriate action was to abandon single engine maneuvering and to restart the engine in order to maintain separation from the other aircraft.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Instructor Pilot reported a near miss with another aircraft which transited the LUF special Air Traffic Rules area as his student descended during an engine restart after being advised to maintain 5;000 FT.

Narrative: My student was in process of securing an 'inoperative engine' flying eastbound in LUF Special Air Traffic Rules Area at 5;000 FT MSL. As the Instructor I had failed the left engine by use of the left fuel selector and the student went through the appropriate checklists. LUF Approach advised traffic south of my position and lower and restricted my aircraft to 5;000 FT MSL or higher. I advised that I did not have traffic in sight. I instructed the student to turn the aircraft westbound (thinking that we were proceeding toward the other aircraft) and I initiated the engine restart process to climb above 5;000 FT MSL. During the engine restart process the aircraft had drifted down approximately 200 FT at which point I observed the other aircraft passing below us approximately 200 FT lower flying northbound. If I had not turned my aircraft from an easterly heading to a westerly heading there would have been no aircraft proximity conflict even with the loss of 200 FT of altitude. However at the time the only appropriate action was to abandon single engine maneuvering and to restart the engine in order to maintain separation from the other aircraft.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

An instructor pilot reported a near miss with another aircraft which transited the luf special air traffic rules area as his student descended during an engine restart after being advised to maintain 5;000 ft.