PA-28R Cherokee Arrow All Series
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 6; Flight Crew Total 295; Flight Crew Type 50
Situational Awareness
Airspace Violation All Types
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors
I unintentionally entered Class D airspace without communication with the Tower. This was in the 'keyhole' extension from the standard circle at HPN; and I did not realize that the airspace extended in that direction until I was already inside it.I had just flown through the Hudson River extension. This was my first time through this area; and I am uncomfortable flying in dense traffic or flying that low; so I was a little overworked. My original plan had me flying to MICAL before turning east on course; but I decided that I would make the turn early; after I cleared the New York class B airspace and started to climb. According to my flight track; I entered the airspace at about 1;900 feet. MSL and was continuing to climb when I noticed traffic via ADS-B on my tablet. I visually acquired the jet; maintained separation (not difficult as they were faster than me and not very close); and turned back to the tablet to track it when I noticed the outline of the class D airspace. I turned to the nearest edge of the airspace and stopped my climb as I saw that I was under a departure corridor. When able I tuned Tower frequency; but the frequency was very busy and I could not contact Tower before I exited their airspace.I feel that this error was caused by the following:Human FactorsUnfamiliarity with the local area: this was my first time flying VFR in this area at a low enough altitude that Class D airspace would be a factor.Overwork: I had just flown through the Hudson River exclusion VFR; in which we flew in close proximity to a number of slow-moving helicopters. I had been at 100% concentration for the past 20 minutes and was starting to lose concentration.Get-there-itis: Feeling tired; I deviated from my flight plan and made the turn early. As I was VFR this might have been OK - except I did not perceive the keyhole extension to the Class D airspace.Technology factorsI have a GPS navigator in the aircraft which usually displays airspace outlines. However; it had given multiple terrain warnings during the river trip; CLR button dismisses that warning; but on the main screen de-clutters by (in this case) turning off airspace outlines. I believe that I accidentally hit the CLR button twice and activated this function; I was aware of the airspace being drawn before entering the Hudson exclusion; but they were not displayed when I entered the class D airspace.My EFB is not a commonly used one; and may suffer from issues. In particular; the zoom level does not match that found on the charts available. I had it zoomed in as far as I could; to help me identify traffic via its ADS-B display; but that meant that lines were somewhat blurry and lower contrast than at a lesser zoom level. This combined with the next item means that it was more difficult to see the western edge of the keyhole extension.The western edge of the keyhole extension runs along the border of a yellow 'densely populated' area; and coincides with a highway and railroad tracks. At a quick glance; this blends together and makes that part of the airspace border hard to see (though the north and east edges of this extension are easily visible)What could prevent a recurrence?My EFB does not prevent zooming beyond a level at which charts are so blurry as to be difficult to read. I will contact their support team to either obtain higher-resolution charts or prevent zooming so close as to make the chart unreadable. (Note that picking up traffic was very much enhanced by this close zoom; so the former is the preferred option.)Furthermore; some EFBs provide a calculated view that is simply airspace outlines. If my EFB had that view; I would have been more likely to see the airspace.More to the point; my EFB was selected on the basis that it runs on hardware I already had. I plan to do another search to determine if a different EFB is more appropriate to safety.I took the Hudson SFRA training; which talked in detail aboutthe route of flight but did not mention airspace around the ends of the SFRA. For a flight that goes north through the Hudson and then turns east; there is almost no way to go except north of HPN's airspace. A specific mention of that would have put a pointer in my mind that might have fixed this issue.HPN's Tower frequency was very busy. If I had a chance to break in; I could have alerted Tower to my presence (though I do not believe that I had a near-miss or triggered a TCAS event; my presence unclear in their airspace posed a safety threat).
PA-28 pilot reported unintentionally entered HPN airspace without clearance.