Clipped corner of bravo...

[rottydaddy]

Back to the OP: Not that it couldn't happen to anyone, but this incident points out something important about GPS nav while VFR: while it seems to allow you more precision in flying close to controlled or restricted airspaces, between the aforementioned radar errors and the fact that without an autopilot the GPS does not fly the plane for you, if you use GPS to cut it as close as you can, you're asking for trouble.

I know quite a few pilots who rely on the GPS for airspace info, and have lost much of their ability to skirt say, a Class B with only chart and pilotage... I guess that's becoming more commonplace, and most likely these incursions will become more common as well.

Very few flights are so time-critical as to require getting within 500 feet, vertically or horizontally, of a controlled or restricted zone... I've never found it a big bother to plot a course or altitude well clear of any airspace I don't want to enter. I've also found that often, the best visual waypoint on or near my course near the airspace line is a few miles outside said airspace. I'd rather lose a few minutes than have to guess where I am in relation to the airspace or risk slopping into it because I'm forgetting the GPS isn't flying .

 

[poadeleted20]

without an autopilot the GPS does not fly the plane for you,

Even with an autopilot, if you don't have GPSS roll steering, the autopilot may not keep you right on the black (or pink) line. This is certainly true with the Century II/III series which will leave you on the downwinds side of course unless you have the heading bug set perfectly for wind drift and the wind doesn't change.

Very few flights are so time-critical as to require getting within 500 feet, vertically or horizontally, of a controlled or restricted zone...

That's the bottom line -- cut it too close, and eventually you'll miss your target enough to hit what you don't want to hit.

 

[stingray]

Congratulations -- you just made the case for extending the ADIZ out to 60nm, which is something USSS wants, but has thus far been denied them. At the end of the day, the ADIZ is really there to protect us from being shot down, not to protect the President from light planes. The problem is that they have limited reaction time to determine whether or not the bogey is hostile. The ADIZ establishes the point at which they begin the ID process, and the FRZ establishes the point at which they begin arming weapons. If they can't make that determination before the bogey reaches the point at which it could actually cause harm to the National Command Authority, they have to shoot. If they didn't have the ADIZ, someone would by now have been splashed because they weren't able to confirm non-hostile status before getting that close.

The folks who penetrate the ADIZ cause the military to expend resources trying to determine hostile intent. If we didn't punish folks for violating it, they wouldn't take it seriously, and the military would have to spend a lot more (or shoot down a few of us who got too close). I'll choose the ADIZ over those other options.

But if they shoot a few down you will get your 5 mile cushion by the rest of us.

Dan