A fatigued C172 pilot reported a near miss with a stationary tower as he was conducting a photo shoo...

Attributes
ACN	856219
Time
Date	200910
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	EZS.Airport
State Reference	WI
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250 Flight Crew Total 15000 Flight Crew Type 14000
Events
Anomaly	Ground Event / Encounter Object Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT Inflight Event / Encounter Object
Miss Distance	Horizontal 100 Vertical 160

Narrative:

While doing aerial photography of some farms near a tower; I lost track of its location and had a near miss with the obstruction. I had been flying for over 6 hours and was fatigued. After taking a picture of a farm I looked to my left and saw the tower go by. I was concentrated to much on the photography and not enough on looking for obstructions and other aircraft. Fatigue and competency were contributing factors. A pilot must always maintain vigilance toward avoiding towers and other aircraft. In addition I was probably lower than I needed to be; good pictures could have been obtained at a higher altitude.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A fatigued C172 pilot reported a near miss with a stationary tower as he was conducting a photo shoot of nearby property.

Narrative: While doing aerial photography of some farms near a tower; I lost track of its location and had a near miss with the obstruction. I had been flying for over 6 hours and was fatigued. After taking a picture of a farm I looked to my left and saw the tower go by. I was concentrated to much on the photography and not enough on looking for obstructions and other aircraft. Fatigue and competency were contributing factors. A pilot must always maintain vigilance toward avoiding towers and other aircraft. In addition I was probably lower than I needed to be; good pictures could have been obtained at a higher altitude.

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.