Cheetah; Tiger; Traveler AA5 Series
Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 10; Flight Crew Total 780; Flight Crew Type 40
Other / Unknown
Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings
This was a training lesson in a Grumman AA-5 aircraft. The objective of the lesson was to fly out with my student to the training area and practice slow-flight; stalls; emergency procedures; steep turns; takeoffs and landings. I follow a strict pre-flight procedure and I have an annual subscription to WingX Pro for flight planning. Before the flight I checked the weather on my iPad using WingX Pro. It was a beautiful day for flying and the weather forecast was VFR. The WingX Pro app was configured to highlight active TFR's on the electronic charts. As typical for California there were TFRs at Beale AFB and Disneyland. WingX Pro did not indicate any TFRs for TCY airport we used for our training. I did not specifically go to FAA's website at that time to double verify whether the information from WingX Pro was complete. We took off and after about 1 hour of flight training we decided to fly back to TCY and work on landings in the traffic pattern. We were coming in from the east and the plan was to overfly the field at about 1;000 FT above the traffic pattern altitude (2;100 FT); maneuver the airplane on the northwest side of the airport and enter left 45 for Runway 30. As we were approaching the field we saw an aircraft doing aerobatic maneuvers in the southeast corner of the field. We had that airplane in sight all the time and kept well clear of it. We kept announcing our position on local CTAF. On CTAF we also heard other aircraft announcing their positions in TCY traffic pattern. My recollection is that all of the other aircraft were using Runway 30. When we were over the midpoint of Runway 30 (flying westbound) a voice came on the CTAF announcing that we just flew through a hot aerobatic box. We promptly proceeded to the west side of the field; maneuvered to enter left 45 for Runway 30 and finished our lesson with three touch and go's on Runway 30. There was another aircraft in the pattern also for Runway 30. After the flight; at the first opportunity (once I had WiFi connection) I double verified WingX Pro for any TFRs and it did not indicate any. I also checked TFRs on FAA website and aside from Beale AFB and Disneyland I could not find anything else. I follow the IMSAFE and PAVE (Pilot; Airplane; enVironment and External pressures) process for flight planning. In that process there is also a step to check TFRs (part of the Environment section). On that day I relied on the WingX Pro's feature to indicate TFRs. Considering that even after the flight I could not locate any TFRs for TCY for that time of the day; I can't discredit the information gathering capabilities of the WingX Pro; but in hindsight I realize that I should have not relied on single site/device/application for information gathering. I should've checked with AFSS; for any additional or more up-to-date information regarding other possible flight activities planned for the time and place of our flight. I will tweak my flight planning process and incorporate this step into my future flights. As a high-tech professional I also have a suggestion to further improve flight safety. I believe it would be beneficial if EFB vendors and the FAA collaborate (as they already do in many other areas) and design a system in which aerobatic flights and/or similar activities were also incorporated into the information gathering capabilities of future EFB apps for fast and easy dissemination of such information.
AA5 instructor pilot returns to TCY after one hour of training to discover an aerobatic box in use next to the field that he is not aware of. The area is not displayed as a TFR on WingX Pro nor can any NOTAMs be found after the flight.