Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 18; Flight Crew Total 358; Flight Crew Type 79
Confusion; Distraction; Situational Awareness
Conflict NMAC; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Bird / Animal
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Chart Or Publication; Human Factors; Software and Automation
I departed my home base airport on a VFR flight for the purpose of gaining experience using the VNAV (Vertical Navigation) function of recently installed GPS Navigators and an autopilot in the aircraft.  As I was intending on changing altitudes throughout the flight to test out the VNAV I decided to not request flight following and instead on my Comm 2 radio I monitored 121.5. The conditions were VFR with about 10 miles visibility; but there was significant haze. To best test out the VNAV functions I created a flight plan with a final fix (another airport) located approximately 79 miles from the departure airport.  My initial intent was to test out the VNAV functionality throughout that path on a few different occasions and with different step downs; then turn around at the final fix; without landing; and return to my home base airport.  While descending to 3;500 feet about 45 miles from the final fix; I flew about 2 miles north of a non-towered airport and about 5 miles north of a city.  When flying in that area; I looked at my IPad which has Foreflight and I did not notice any Parachute Jump Area (PJA) rings over that airport and expecting to see those rings in the relevant areas I did not notice the parachute symbol by the airport that appears on the VFR Sectional on the IPad.  Having successfully completed one test of the VNAV about 45 miles before arriving at the final fix; and predominately due to the haze; I decided to discontinue flying towards the final fix and to begin heading back to my home base earlier than originally anticipated.  Looking again at the IPad I did not notice any PJA rings or the parachute symbol by the airport near the city and I decided to use that airport as part of my route towards my home base airport and turned toward that airport.  Within a couple of minutes I overflew that airport eastbound at 3;500 feet MSL (approximately 2;300 AGL) while using the autopilot and noticed a small aircraft landing southbound on the airport's runway.  I then looked up about 45 degrees from the horizon and saw one open canopy parachutist about 300 feet above the airplane and another at about the 2 o'clock position 500 feet laterally and 300 feet above the plane.  It was immediately clear from their rate of descent that I would be past both of them before they would reach my altitude.  I quickly scanned for other parachutist and put my thumb over the autopilot disconnect switch; but not having any idea how many parachutists were out there and not seeing others except for the two with which I recognized I was not in a collision course; I thought that maintaining heading and altitude would make me as predictable as possible and it would give any other parachutist that could see or hear me the best opportunity to avoid me.  Thus; I covered the controls to use them to override the autopilot if needed but did not disengage the autopilot or perform any evasive maneuvers.    Upon landing; I immediately checked my iPad again to see if there were any PJAs over the airport; and none were present over that airport; and I then noticed there were no PJAs depicted anywhere over any airports.  When looking at the IPad on the ground I did identify the Sectional's parachute symbol near the airport.  I then compared my IPad's Foreflight map display with that on my IPhone and saw that the IPhone displayed the PJA rings.  The next day I contacted Foreflight as I could not identify the difference in the settings that was causing the IPhone to display PJA rings and not on the IPad.  They very quickly pointed me to a setting for Airspace that I had not enabled on the IPad and as soon as I enabled it; the PJAs showed up on the IPad. I believe my over reliance on Foreflight's PJA rings caused me to not inspect the map closely enough to identify the parachute symbol by the airfield near the area that I was not originally intending to use as a turn around point.  Verifying that this setting is enabled is now a checklist item for me;and when there are changes to a plan that will cause me to fly near an airport; regardless of the altitude over the pattern; I will more closely inspect for the parachute symbols even if there is no ring depicted on Foreflight.  Also; even when engaged in local flights that require maneuvering and changes in altitude and that may place me near multiple airports; I intend to request flight following.
A Cirrus pilot reported a conflict with skydivers while flying through a designated parachute jump area. The reporter stated incorrectly configured settings in their Foreflight app to hide parachute jump areas contributed to the incident.