RV-7
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 14; Flight Crew Total 754; Flight Crew Type 436
Communication Breakdown; Human-Machine Interface
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Bird / Animal
General None Reported / Taken
Aircraft; Human Factors
After local flying around the area East of TKI I determined I would need to fuel up the plane. So I turned toward WSI. Along the way I saw on my tablet that I would be in the area of a jump zone so I tuned the radio to monitor the frequency. I was also trying to keep track of my location on my tablet. While enroute I looked up and saw parachutes above me. I hadn't heard any broadcasts about jumpers in the air; but discovered that although I had tuned the radio to the frequency either I had not pressed the swap button or possibly had pressed it a second time after already pressing it. The result was that I would have missed any jump transmission. Also; as a contributing factor; I had not noticed that the tablet's GPS had lost its lock and was not showing the plane's current actual position.
Approaching a jump zone; an RV7 pilot attempts to tune in the jump frequency but does not press the swap button. Parachutes are then seen blossoming above his aircraft as he continues through the jump zone. The loss of the GPS (Global Positioning System) signal on the tablet was also a contributing factor.