Narrative:

I departed 1h0 and climbed to 1600 ft MSL which is near the floor of st. Louis' class B airspace. After passing a 'cake ring'; I climbed to about 2500-3000 ft. When I saw another cake ring appear on the garmin 530W navigator; I was unable to quickly ascertain the floor of the segment I was in. I quickly descended to about 1100 ft; probably exceeding 250 kts indicated because I was carrying full power in anticipation of a climb; not a descent. I was in a hurry to get down and didn't think of the speed issue until later. I leveled off about 1100 ft MSL and tried to figure out the cake ring altitudes on my tablet; using the avare app. The tablet lost its GPS signal and locked up. As I was working to figure out the altitude restrictions; I saw some buildings go under my left wing; which made me think I might be over a populated area. And at 1100 MSL; I was only about 640 ft AGL. By then; there were no more buildings in sight; so I continued trying to figure out the altitude restrictions; this time on my garmin 696 portable GPS. By the time I was able to pan over to the cake rings and decode them; I was clear of class B airspace. I climbed to 7500 ft and continued to my destination [north bound]. So in summary; I had 3 issues: 1) entering class B airspace without authorization; 2) too fast in class B airspace; and 3) too low over a populated area. The latter two issues resulted from the first one.contributing factors: it is difficult to find the altitudes for class B airspace on a garmin 530W while hand flying a plane. The backup tablet locked up when it lost its GPS signal. And I had to pan to the rings on the portable GPS to show the needed information.what I plan to do about it: clearly; I need to do a better job with situational awareness prior to entering high workload conditions; and I will. I learned a valuable lesson about that through this experience. But I also plan to put a pfd and mfd in the plane as soon as possible so the information is displayed right in the panel.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot reported departing 1H0 northbound using a Garmin 530W to show the Class B airspace above. During the climb; the reporter became confused as to the floor of the Class B ring in his immediate vicinity and quickly dived to 1100 feet; exceeded 250 knots; and descended below 1;000 feet AGL over a populated area.

Narrative: I departed 1H0 and climbed to 1600 ft MSL which is near the floor of St. Louis' Class B airspace. After passing a 'cake ring'; I climbed to about 2500-3000 ft. When I saw another cake ring appear on the Garmin 530W navigator; I was unable to quickly ascertain the floor of the segment I was in. I quickly descended to about 1100 ft; probably exceeding 250 kts indicated because I was carrying full power in anticipation of a climb; not a descent. I was in a hurry to get down and didn't think of the speed issue until later. I leveled off about 1100 ft MSL and tried to figure out the cake ring altitudes on my tablet; using the Avare app. The tablet lost its GPS signal and locked up. As I was working to figure out the altitude restrictions; I saw some buildings go under my left wing; which made me think I might be over a populated area. And at 1100 MSL; I was only about 640 ft AGL. By then; there were no more buildings in sight; so I continued trying to figure out the altitude restrictions; this time on my Garmin 696 portable GPS. By the time I was able to pan over to the cake rings and decode them; I was clear of Class B airspace. I climbed to 7500 ft and continued to my destination [north bound]. So in summary; I had 3 issues: 1) entering class B airspace without authorization; 2) too fast in Class B airspace; and 3) too low over a populated area. The latter two issues resulted from the first one.Contributing factors: It is difficult to find the altitudes for Class B airspace on a Garmin 530W while hand flying a plane. The backup tablet locked up when it lost its GPS signal. And I had to pan to the rings on the portable GPS to show the needed information.What I plan to do about it: Clearly; I need to do a better job with situational awareness prior to entering high workload conditions; and I will. I learned a valuable lesson about that through this experience. But I also plan to put a PFD and MFD in the plane as soon as possible so the information is displayed right in the panel.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.