during my private training near SDF my instructor and i were doing stalls & slow flight in a 150. looked up and saw a Kingair barreling towards us only about 300ft or so away.

So far the worst place for me, as far as weekend warriors go is up near Petaluma CA. I swear I got scared to death everyday I was flying up there. I was on flight following and everything, and RARELY received a traffic call.

And as diligently as I was scanning, sometimes ya really can't see them until their close. I hope to never fly up there again =)

I was working on my multi-commercial and doing pattern work in a Seneca I. This was at a very busy, uncontrolled field on a Saturday afternoon. There were several other aircraft in the pattern, with a few trying to enter. As a result, the radio was full of chatter. We were on the departure leg, when we heard a 172 announce that he was on the 45 to enter. I announced cross wind and started to look for him. Neither myself or my MEI saw him until he rolled wings level just above us and within a hundred feet or so to the right. It turns out that his entry leg was nearly straight in to the pattern and we were looking in the wrong place. The CFI in the 172 was one of the most experienced guys on the field and we talked about how/why it happened later on.

The experience definitely changed my attitudes about keeping a look out for traffic.

I flew a trafficwatch C-152 out of Blue Ash north of CVG. Lots of near miss stories there - where did you fly out of?

Was inbound to Hobby, LJ31. Cleared down to 3K. Out of 4, TCAS indicated a guy at 3K and closing. I leveled at 3.5 while FO was confirming w/center. Center had no one on their scope and re-cleared us to 3, but I told them neg., till we got a tally and/or the TCAS target was clear. Sure enough, popped out of a cloud and saw the 3K traffic, an Apache. Would have smoked both of us that day, had the metal detector not saved our cans. After passing, and as we were switching to twr, approach told us he finally came up on their scope.
Uhhh, yeahhh....

I had to use the bathroom really bad one time...almost didn't make it.

That is the worst. And I'm not talking about going #1. Ah the cold sweats....then the hot flashes...

Skywest EMB-120 over the busy Bay Area.
Flying a PIC Cross Country flight from Monterey to San Carlos. I was on with Norcal for flight following. However, because of the somewhat low overcast, I decided to take the valley route to my airport (over San Jose, Palo Alto (busy GA airport), Moffet Field (former military base), and within 7 miles of SFO).

Moffet Tower is a federal airfield, and thus there is hardly any traffic, and the controllers rarely get trafffic. All of a sudden I get see this airplane infront of me not moving. Having just flown a full motion airline simulator at the United Training Center, I remembered when the simulator worker put an airliner on a head on collision with my simulated 747, and I remembered how I didn't see any movement. So I dove a couple of hundred feet, when suddenly the Barasilia whizzed over my head going the opposite direction. Right as I started to descend, with the Brasilia maybe 2,000ft from me straight ahead(closing at 300+ kts), the Moffet controller says:
"Cessna 48D, suggest a slight left turn for traffic."
He didn't finish his sentence before the Brasilia screemed over my head.

Look for traffic, even if you are talking to ATC!

I've had the same thing happen before (only in fixed wing). I was with a student and we shot a practice approach at a well know jump airport. Because of this we maintained a very close listen for the jump plane. Wouldn't you know one guy forgets/neglects to call "jumpers away" to warn me to stay the hell out of there. Right in front of me a chute opens up. After a hard bank left to miss him, I can still remember the look on his face.

FWIW - Anyone flyin into ABE should watch out about 15-20 mi. NNW of the field (over Beltzville Lake). There's a lot of glider activity in that area, and I know there tends to be a decent amount of descending regionals coming through that area.