Chancellor 414A / C414
Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 15; Flight Crew Total 900; Flight Crew Type 600
Human-Machine Interface
Airspace Violation All Types
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Exited Penetrated Airspace; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Procedure; Human Factors
Events leading to inadvertent penetration of presidential TFR.1. Major flaw; which can mislead the pilot using the cell phone application Foreflight- Most GA pilots have started using Foreflight. Their website states 'Foreflight Mobile is used by a wide range corporate and government customers; including thought leading Fortune 50 corporate flight departments and state and federal agencies. Many 135 flight operations have received OpSpec A061 approval to use Foreflight Mobile in all phases of flight as a replacement for paper charts'. It's one of the highest rated; widely used aviation package. It's a cell phone application; which will give the updated weather; radar; TFRs; fuel prices etc. It is very convenient. I have the highest order subscription for Foreflight. Before departure; I checked for flight rules; radar and TFRs. Could not see the TFR on the sectional map with SMO with any RED outline. Later I realized that the opacity setting; for the overlay had been turned to minimum. When flying thru weather; one had to toggle the opacity to see the way points; as radar and satellite settings can make the underlying map invisible but the app; unfortunately retains the memory of the last setting and does not come back to 'default setting'. To complicate the situation; one setting of 'opacity' affects the others; for example - if the opacity for Radar was turned to lowest; there is no way that you would see the TFR as it turns TFR opacity to lowest by default. In other words; if one is not a professional pilot; and you fly the plane every 2-3 weeks; the 'opacity' settings made on last flight; for other reasons; will affect the TFR visibility and one may not even realize it. I have talked to many seasoned pilots; and almost everyone has one of these mobile apps in their phones. 2. I am a member of volunteer pilot organization and this app has been discussed in our meetings as well. No where is it discussed that the visibility of the overlay will default to last value and if you do not change the setting every time. Improvement suggested- The default setting after the program when restarted should be to 50% level so that the pilot can always reduce the overlay visibility and not miss the important information. The TFR visibility should not go below 10% as they will be visible yet the underlying map is also readable. The TFR warning should be set like runway incursions. If the app is disconnected from the cellular service; it should give an indication of unreliability of the information like it does for radar or satellite. Another likely reason that could affect the pilot getting incorrect date could be: The cell phones data is not connected; the new data is loading; and if the connection is slow. Cellular connectivity malfunction. For TFR Foreflight does not give an indication of a loss of data connection; like it does for weather when not connected to cellular service. If the cellular data connection is lost; and the radar of satellite overlay is switched on; sectional map starts to have lines letting the pilot know it's not connected to the data. But for TFR it does not. If you are relying on Foreflight (a lot of GA pilots do) you could be misled and fly right into a TFR. Also Foreflight has a great feature for runway incursions- but not for TFR.3. Flight following - 9 out of 10 times; I am on flight following; our tower staff is extremely friendly; and while taxiing out; they always offer it. This was the first time they did not and seemed to be busy. As they are very helpful; I felt that if it was not offered to me; they must be understaffed (as many towers are closing). I did not ask for it. I planned to call SOCAL to get the fight following; as I get it before a 30 nm radius before entering LA class B.4. About 40-50 miles from SMO; I tuned into SMO ATIS; At this point I was already descending and ground speed was around 180-190 Knots. I tuned to SOCAL to get flight following and called with my call sign; position. I was instructed to Ident; After a few minutes of no response; I requested again;- I was instructed to Ident again; the approach control seemed busy; third request was put by me; and at this point I was 20 miles from SMO; The controller finally got back to me; asked me If I knew about the TFR and I replied 'NO'. He vectored me '240' and I instantly complied. Couple of minutes later an F-15 showed around us. The SOCAL Approach control could have vectored us away from the TFR as soon as I had hit the First Ident; this could have avoided the incursion altogether. 5-10 minutes meant 18 -20 miles in a 180-190 knots descending airplane. As more and more pilots are turning to their cell phone apps; I think there is a room for improvement and there is a lot we can do to avoid inadvertent TFR violations.
C414 pilot reports an inadvertent entry into into a TFR. The reporter was using a Foreflight cell phone application to display TFR's; but a previous adjustment to the display intensity rendered the TFR boundary invisible.