Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 25; Flight Crew Total 950; Flight Crew Type 5
Training / Qualification; Situational Awareness; Distraction
Airspace Violation All Types; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
General None Reported / Taken
Weather; Human Factors
Flying from Phoenix area headed towards Dallas area; I encountered isolated thunderstorms and rain showers and was deviating around them using a combination of XM (for strategic overview) and on-board radar (for near/tactical decision making). Aircraft was new to me; as was the G600 glass panel; and this was the inaugural trip home in the new airplane. I'd done some reading on weather radar and was consciously trying to learn to the use the radar to augment my visual assessment of the clouds and isolated rain showers; so I was picking my way through/around the rain showers; rather than doing a large deviation around the area entirely. In the course of doing this; the XM was showing that the weather (Nexrad) was generally best to the right of my course; so when I was picking through the showers; I was tending to deviate right. At all times; the aircraft was in legal VFR; and was generally in very good VFR as the showers were fairly wide-spread. We never even got the windshield wet; though cloud-to-ground lightning was visible 10-30 miles away.At some point; I noticed a strange-looking and visually striking set of parallel roads below and I switched over to the map view to try to identify them. It was at that point that I realized that those were the roads representing the border between Mexico and the US and that I was very close to the ADIZ boundary. I don't know whether or not I was ever in Mexican airspace; but I was disappointed in myself to not even be aware to ask the question. I realize that I was spending so much time and attention trying to learn the new-to-me weather radar (in an effort to be safer down the road); that I lost awareness of where I was in relation to the national border and ADIZ. Had the road/fence/border not come into view; and the weather been a little different; it's entirely possible that I'd have flown 25 miles into Mexico on a 1200 squawk deviating south of the weather without any awareness. Corrective action: Hold a more appropriate balance between learning for tomorrow's safety and executing for today's. Use weather deviations as a cue to review where you are. IFR; this is much less of a concern; but single-pilot-VFR; it's easy to imagine how one could drift into rising terrain; Class B airspace; a restricted area; or in this case; an ADIZ.
BE58 pilot reports becoming distracted using XM weather and on-board radar for the first time in his new aircraft and not paying attention to navigation. This results in a possible intrusion into Mexican airspace without a flight plan.