Skylane 182/RG Turbo Skylane/RG
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 27.7; Flight Crew Total 927.5; Flight Crew Type 28.4
Human-Machine Interface; Other / Unknown
Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Exited Penetrated Airspace
Human Factors
I was to ferry a G1000 equipped aircraft to a maintenance facility for its annual inspection. Although comfortable with the G1000; I still routinely fly with sectional charts as I also frequently fly non-G1000 aircraft. This cross-country flight spanned two sectionals. The departure airport underlies the 4;000 MSL floor of the ORD Class B airspace. While flight planning the night previous to the flight; I decided I would fly direct. I used a popular online flight planning program to plot the course so that I could see where the course line transitioned the two sectionals. I noticed the nice magenta course line on the screen remained just west and clear of a lower 3;600 MSL floor of the Class B airspace. That fact stuck in my mind. On the sectional; I plotted the transition point at the sectional boundary and then plotted the course line from that point back to the departure airport. I did not notice; however; that the line actually penetrated the lower 3;600 MSL shelf and was not to the west and clear of it. My current sectional has a lot of highlighted course lines emanating from the departure airport and that may have contributed to distracting me from recognizing that. The next morning; the direct flight plan was entered into the G1000. I hand-flew the departure to 3;500 FT; following the GPS course line on the MFD waiting for the 4;000 FT shelf to be cleared. I was demonstrating to my passenger how; using the Range button on the MFD as a cursor control; one could determine any airspace limits. I showed him that at 3;500 FT we were under the 4;000 FT shelf. I became focused on the floor altitude and not the shape of the shelf I was seeing and not realizing immediately I was farther east than I thought I would be. The range on the MFD was sufficiently zoomed in that I did not see the course line transition the 3;600 FT shelf. Once clear; I initiated a climb using the autopilot. I was approaching 4;200 MSL when my passenger then asked what the next section was. Next section? It was now obvious on the MFD that there indeed was a next section - the airspace ring defining the outer limit was not previously visible due to Range setting. I was in the 3;600-10;000 MSL shelf. I disengaged the autopilot and initiated a descent to below 3;600 MSL. I was confused as to how this happened became more confused when looking at my sectional closer and indeed; the course line went through the lower shelf. I was not in contact with ATC. When finally satisfied I was actually clear of the Class B outer ring; I climbed and completed the remainder of the flight as planned.I was very bothered by how I came to the conclusion that I was fine once I 'cleared' the 4;000 FT shelf. When I returned home; I brought up the online program again. It remembers what was being viewed previously and now displayed what I was looking at from the previous evening. There was the magenta line still west of the 3;600 FT shelf. Then I realized the error. The departure airport has a nearby (4 NM) VOR with similar identifier; but without the leading 'K'. I had entered the VOR instead of the airport into the program's flight plan and not realized the error. Because I was interested in the point where the course line crossed the sectional I had zoomed out sufficiently where the course endpoint was sufficiently large to cover the VOR symbology and the weather icon covered all the runways of the departure airport. And I hadn't recognized the other symbology typically surrounding an airport wasn't around the course endpoint. That wasn't the part of the sectional I was interested in. Contributing factors to this incident include the failure on my part to verify the results provided by the tools I was using were indeed accurate and correct. Ironically; although my intent was not to rely fully on technology I failed to recognize that the non-technological tools I had (paper sectionals and course plots) were telling me what I needed to know. Had I also plotted the courseon the TAC chart I had for the area; it would have been obvious that the course line penetrated the lower shelf. In the future I will endeavor to use all the tools at my disposal and verify their data.
C182 pilot reports inadvertently entering ORD Class B airspace after carefully preflighting using a web site to determine that his proposed flight track would not enter Class B airspace. DPA was used for planning but the flight actually departed DPA and entry into Class B on the south bound flight.