This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
I flew VFR from ZZZ1 to ZZZ as part of a longer cross country trip for an air show and back to airport of origin.
After arrival at ZZZ the airport manager gave me a number to call regarding an incursion of Special Use Airspace (SUA) and possible near miss with an unmanned aerial system (UAS).
I was using Foreflight for flight planning and airspace avoidance purposes. I was not aware that on the airspace menu the tab for SUA had been set to the “off” position. I was following a direct path between ZZZ1 and ZZZ, which resulted in flying directly through the restricted area completely unaware of its existence.
Upon review of the entire trip I found additional instances of possible SUA incursions that I was unaware of. I have no way of determining if the areas were hot or cold at the time.
Better familiarity with the Foreflight software would have prevented this.
Additionally, had I used the sectional chart mode instead of the clean mode I would have seen the SUA and noticed it was not being designated in orange.
Primary Problem: Ambiguous
ACN: 1989587
I take it the Anon pilot decided it was ‘all good’ that he launch without a briefing from the Flight Service contractor. FWIW, Foreflight, Garmin’s product, and every other EFB says quite clearly that it’s still on the pilot to get the briefing. Foreflight, like all the others, has a cute paragraph in the user manual that essentially says “all these pretty screens are for advisory purposes only, and all information must be confirmed by the user”.
Everyone is so against technology… kind of sad sometimes. Nothing in this report talks about the pilots paper chart familiarity/proficiency. How many of y’all actually fly with paper charts as your primary source??
Settings get changed on FF…either inadvertently, or through updates, etc..
Preflight FF as you do your airplane.
Details matter…sounds like he learned that.
No one to blame but the pilot himself/herself. How many times have we been reminded to do a thorough pre-flight briefing before getting in the cockpit? A quick and simple self-briefing on-line or a call to Flight Service would have prevented this. It’s not the software’s fault. An honest mistake? No, I think it’s negligence or laziness not to do a good pre-flight briefing, and it could have ended up far worse than a near miss. A good reminder to us all.
I used sectionals for 35 years before switching to ForeFlight. I quit because I was not able to display SUA on the paper chart. Where is that setting?
Hey Dan, I was wondering the same thing, but I found the solution. Happy to email helpful screen shots to assist. [email protected]
Trouble is, we have an entire generation of CFI’s who have never been taught proficiency with anything other than a magenta line and an electronic flight bag. Turn off the electronics and they are lost.
Children of the magenta line.
Sounds like an honest mistake which he understands and admits. Trouble is, in the air honest mistakes can be deadly. The over-riding issue is today’s over-reliance on high-technology for conducting our lives (not mine). Several younger generations have no idea how to use a common road map. Technological advance is both marvelous and a curse. Seems to me I view the best pilots as those who under stick-and-rudder airframe performance and control plus use of simple ‘steam gauge’ instruments. Trusting the ‘glass’ panel stuff is perilous without a complete understanding of how to use it and what it’s trying to tell you. One man’s opinion…
Regards/J
And, with my opinion, that makes two man’s opinion.
Make that three of us!
Same logic dictates that you never get a speeding ticket while riding a horse, so we should go back to riding horses. Catch up Grandpa, adapt or die!
Using VFR Radar Service (Flight Following) should also have kept him out of trouble.
What you need to do is familiarize yourself, that is, fully understand how to manage ForeFlight. Then you need to preplan your flight and review all airspace in around your intended route. This is what preflight planning is all about, and why it is so important to do days leading up to your trip. Once in the cockpit make sure ForefFght is set appropriately. All the necessary information about restricted airspace is depicted on a Sectional chart expect TFRs. The big question here is, were you violated for entering the airspace???
Get a paper chart.!!! no software updates, no batteries.!!
Then, check the TRFs and Notams.
No excuses.!
Nailed it. My students must demonstrate complete accuracy with E6B, plotter and sectionals beef I let them use the magenta line.
Spot on! Flying use to be fun. Now it’s like planing a space shuttle flight.
I guess it’s time to move to one of the “fly over states” and get back to fun Flying.