Cessna 150
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 3.4; Flight Crew Total 332.1; Flight Crew Type 308
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Object
General None Reported / Taken
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors
Flying a 95 KT Cessna 150; I was experiencing a 10 KT headwind; and decided in a very rural area to fly just above the ground to achieve a better ground speed. I was checking my GPS to verify ground speed when I caught a wire passing over the windscreen at no more than 30 FT in front of me. I had not noticed any electric/telephone poles; and did not have any time to react before I heard a bang. As I had no loss of control or change in flying characteristics; I gained several hundred feet of elevation; and then looked around at the empennage. Seeing no sign of damage; I continued the flight to the destination. Upon parking; I inspected the rudder and could see absolutely no marks of impact. I can only think the wire bounced off the beacon but did not damage it. Flying low to save a few minutes of flight time almost caused a crash. My not continually looking outside the cockpit and being distracted by the GPS was potentially fatal. Low level flight will not be done again.
A C150 pilot; trying to optimize his ground speed by flying low; struck an electrical wire but surprisingly did no damage.