Narrative:

I was northbound within the eastern edge of the wash dc sfra; in contact with potomac TRACON. Proceeding VFR; below the 2;500 foot ring of the class B airspace; at 2;000 MSL; crossed the boundary into the 1;500 foot ring while still at 2;000 MSL. Controller pointed out the deviation within about two miles; and I descended to 1300 MSL immediately. I was occupied with changing batteries in a new hand-held GPS and let it occupy more time than I realized. It was an inappropriate location (air space; traffic; light rain showers) to be fooling around with a non-essential device. The aircraft is equipped with a panel mount GPS and dual VOR's and DME; so I had plenty of navigation information without the hand-held. The route of flight would have had me crossing the chesapeake bay in just a few more minutes; well away from the class B and sfra; and would have provided me with ample time to experiment with the hand-held at my leisure. I also made a few other minor procedural errors during the five hour flight; such as tuning frequencies a bit late and occasionally relaxing my traffic scan for longer periods than normal for me. I think fatigue and inadequate sleep affected my concentration; and the heat/humidity were factors. I may have also been unconsciously depending on the observer in the right seat to assist in situational awareness; the right seater is trained as an observer and is a non-current pilot; but as PIC I didn't brief him on airspace awareness. The tac chart is well laid out; clear; and unambiguous. I'm certain it wasn't a factor. The class B rings were clearly visible on the panel mount GPS; and although the floor and ceiling altitudes are not displayed; I know the values by heart from long experience. My mistake was flying a long; hot; tiring mission with minimal sleep (5 hours) in demanding airspace at the end of a tough work week.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot penetrated DC SFRA without clearance.

Narrative: I was northbound within the eastern edge of the Wash DC SFRA; in contact with Potomac TRACON. Proceeding VFR; below the 2;500 foot ring of the Class B airspace; at 2;000 MSL; crossed the boundary into the 1;500 foot ring while still at 2;000 MSL. Controller pointed out the deviation within about two miles; and I descended to 1300 MSL immediately. I was occupied with changing batteries in a new hand-held GPS and let it occupy more time than I realized. It was an inappropriate location (air space; traffic; light rain showers) to be fooling around with a non-essential device. The aircraft is equipped with a panel mount GPS and dual VOR's and DME; so I had plenty of navigation information without the hand-held. The route of flight would have had me crossing the Chesapeake Bay in just a few more minutes; well away from the Class B and SFRA; and would have provided me with ample time to experiment with the hand-held at my leisure. I also made a few other minor procedural errors during the five hour flight; such as tuning frequencies a bit late and occasionally relaxing my traffic scan for longer periods than normal for me. I think fatigue and inadequate sleep affected my concentration; and the heat/humidity were factors. I may have also been unconsciously depending on the observer in the right seat to assist in situational awareness; the right seater is trained as an observer and is a non-current pilot; but as PIC I didn't brief him on airspace awareness. The TAC chart is well laid out; clear; and unambiguous. I'm certain it wasn't a factor. The Class B rings were clearly visible on the panel mount GPS; and although the floor and ceiling altitudes are not displayed; I know the values by heart from long experience. My mistake was flying a long; hot; tiring mission with minimal sleep (5 hours) in demanding airspace at the end of a tough work week.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.