BE35 pilot enroute on an IFR flight plan at 6;000 ft was instructed to climb to 8;000 by ATC to clea...

Narrative:

My IFR flight in a beech bonanza proceeded normally until approaching the mountains between odf and hours VOR's. I had done extensive flight planning that day; planning on avoiding a large low pressure system and was on an IFR flight plan with a filed altitude of 6;000. The problem was that as I planned my flight I did not have ready access to enroute charts that would show the safe crossing altitudes for crossing the mountains between odf and lou. I believed I was far enough east to safely cross at 6;000 ft. The flight planning software I was using had terrain features that was out of date and did not display properly. I did an adequate job of accounting for the active weather on that day; but not the terrain. Thus I filed at 6;000 ft and proceeded. As I approached the mountains approximately between odf and hours; ATC directed me to climb to at least 7;600 ft to avoid terrain. I was concerned about icing above 6;000 ft and discussed my concern with ATC; after which I climbed to 7;600 and later 8;000. My airplane is equipped with an after market tks system; which I activated. No icing conditions were encountered and the flight proceeded and terminated normally. My aircraft is also equipped with garmin 530W and 396 GPS devices that call out terrain warnings as well as provide weather radar and other weather data such as metar's; taf's; etc. At no time did the garmin systems call out a terrain warning of any kind. The inadequate flight planning had its root cause in my reliance on computerized flight planning software that normally would provide notification of terrain issues at the altitude I was planning to fly at. The software was recently installed on a new computer and was not fully operational or up to date. Normally this type of planning works well; but on this day I was crossing terrain that was unfamiliar to me. I should have consulted enroute charts I had in the airplane to verify that my filed altitude was adequate to get me safely across the mountains. After the flight I investigated and corrected the problem with the software and it clearly showed that 6;000 ft was not high enough to safely cross the mountains on my filed route. While it is likely my garmin systems would have warned me of a terrain conflict before a CFIT accident; ATC did a great job of having me climb before any conflicts arose.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BE35 pilot enroute on an IFR flight plan at 6;000 FT was instructed to climb to 8;000 by ATC to clear terrain. Preflight planning was accomplished online and a low altitude airways chart was not consulted prior to flight.

Narrative: My IFR flight in a Beech Bonanza proceeded normally until approaching the mountains between ODF and HRS VOR's. I had done extensive flight planning that day; planning on avoiding a large low pressure system and was on an IFR flight plan with a filed altitude of 6;000. The problem was that as I planned my flight I did not have ready access to enroute charts that would show the safe crossing altitudes for crossing the mountains between ODF and LOU. I believed I was far enough east to safely cross at 6;000 FT. The flight planning software I was using had terrain features that was out of date and did not display properly. I did an adequate job of accounting for the active weather on that day; but not the terrain. Thus I filed at 6;000 FT and proceeded. As I approached the mountains approximately between ODF and HRS; ATC directed me to climb to at least 7;600 FT to avoid terrain. I was concerned about icing above 6;000 FT and discussed my concern with ATC; after which I climbed to 7;600 and later 8;000. My airplane is equipped with an after market TKS system; which I activated. No icing conditions were encountered and the flight proceeded and terminated normally. My aircraft is also equipped with Garmin 530W and 396 GPS devices that call out terrain warnings as well as provide weather radar and other weather data such as METAR's; TAF's; etc. At no time did the Garmin systems call out a terrain warning of any kind. The inadequate flight planning had its root cause in my reliance on computerized flight planning software that normally would provide notification of terrain issues at the altitude I was planning to fly at. The software was recently installed on a new computer and was not fully operational or up to date. Normally this type of planning works well; but on this day I was crossing terrain that was unfamiliar to me. I should have consulted enroute charts I had in the airplane to verify that my filed altitude was adequate to get me safely across the mountains. After the flight I investigated and corrected the problem with the software and it clearly showed that 6;000 FT was not high enough to safely cross the mountains on my filed route. While it is likely my Garmin systems would have warned me of a terrain conflict before a CFIT accident; ATC did a great job of having me climb before any conflicts arose.

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.

Attributes
ACN	880680
Time
Date	201003
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	A80.TRACON
State Reference	GA
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Bonanza 35
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 25 Flight Crew Total 1125 Flight Crew Type 635
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Other / Unknown Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

BE35 pilot enroute on an IFR flight plan at 6;000 ft was instructed to climb to 8;000 by ATC to clear terrain. Preflight planning was accomplished online and a low altitude airways chart was not consulted prior to flight.