Narrative:

I took a sightseeing flight today from my home field. Before the flight I looked up a number of charts and data on my ipad using fore flight; which I have only used for a couple of months. I looked at the fore flight tfr screen for utah and failed to see the tfr. I rely as a backup on my garmin 496; with xm; which shows tfr's. Today; for the first time ever; I failed to connect the garmin antenna to the receiver and I did not notice. I took off unaware of the tfr; and flew over it at about 8;000 ft climbing up over the wasatch mountains. Approximately 30 minutes later; I returned over corner canyon to the salt lake valley; and again violated the tfr. I flew northbound and contacted S56 approach for flight following while we flew over a passenger's house south of downtown salt lake city. Then we returned south; and the controller asked if I was familiar with the tfr; I replied I was not. Puzzled; I checked the garmin; connected the cable; and returned under radar surveillance not violating the tfr again. After getting back on the ground I checked the tfr chart again on fore flight; and it was there; but difficult to see due to the tfr being nearly the same orange color as the background. I consider myself a conscientious pilot and recognize I am responsible for finding out all information available before a flight. I have never violated a tfr and plan not to again. I have recently found that for short local flights; checking the data online and with my ipad is better and faster than getting a briefing from flight service. But it looks like I need to mend my ways and go back to calling them to make certain I don't miss local tfrs again. (I clearly would not have missed this had I called them.) I also will check my antenna cable on my garmin each flight; again only to use the garmin as a convenient graphical backup for FAA tfr information.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: AA5 pilot reports inadvertently violating a TFR by not noticing it during an iPad preflight and forgetting to plug in the Garmin antenna during the flight.

Narrative: I took a sightseeing flight today from my home field. Before the flight I looked up a number of charts and data on my iPad using Fore Flight; which I have only used for a couple of months. I looked at the Fore Flight TFR screen for Utah and failed to see the TFR. I rely as a backup on my Garmin 496; with XM; which shows TFR's. Today; for the first time ever; I failed to connect the Garmin antenna to the receiver and I did not notice. I took off unaware of the TFR; and flew over it at about 8;000 FT climbing up over the Wasatch Mountains. Approximately 30 minutes later; I returned over Corner Canyon to the Salt Lake Valley; and again violated the TFR. I flew northbound and contacted S56 Approach for flight following while we flew over a passenger's house south of downtown Salt Lake City. Then we returned south; and the Controller asked if I was familiar with the TFR; I replied I was not. Puzzled; I checked the Garmin; connected the cable; and returned under radar surveillance not violating the TFR again. After getting back on the ground I checked the TFR chart again on Fore Flight; and it was there; but difficult to see due to the TFR being nearly the same orange color as the background. I consider myself a conscientious pilot and recognize I am responsible for finding out all information available before a flight. I have never violated a TFR and plan not to again. I have recently found that for short local flights; checking the data online and with my iPad is better and faster than getting a briefing from Flight Service. But it looks like I need to mend my ways and go back to calling them to make certain I don't miss local TFRs again. (I clearly would not have missed this had I called them.) I also will check my antenna cable on my Garmin each flight; again only to use the Garmin as a convenient graphical backup for FAA TFR information.

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.