Small Aircraft
Flight Crew Commercial
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 85; Flight Crew Total 1140; Flight Crew Type 450
Situational Awareness
Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors
While flying northeast of Palm Springs a fighter jet approached very fast flying in front of the plane then circling around several times rocking his wings and trying to get my attention. I knew something was wrong so I searched for radio frequencies that I could use to find out what the problem was; I even looked on the iPad to check for TFR's and did not see any there. Then I heard Palm Springs Control Tower tell the aircraft northeast of the airport to turn east immediately and that there was a TFR for 30 miles around Palm Springs. After turning east I was told to contact Control. After several failed attempts trying to contact Control; I tried to reach Palm Springs Tower again but could not get anyone. The fighter jet followed me to the east out of the TFR and I did not hear anything else. I had told the Tower that the ForeFlight on the iPad was updated that very morning. But upon returning home I found that the viewing of the TFR feature on the iPad was turned off. The cause of the problem began when I failed to make 100% sure of the settings on the iPad. Something that could be done to prevent this from happening again is using more than one form of information (such as a computer) for planning the flight.
Small aircraft pilot reports inadvertently entering a TFR and being intercepted by a military aircraft. It was discovered that the iPad ForeFlight program had been set to not display TFR's and no other source had been checked prior to flight.