Narrative:

I was to ferry a G1000 equipped aircraft to a maintenance facility for its annual inspection. Although comfortable with the G1000; I still routinely fly with sectional charts as I also frequently fly non-G1000 aircraft. This cross-country flight spanned two sectionals. The departure airport underlies the 4;000 MSL floor of the ord class B airspace. While flight planning the night previous to the flight; I decided I would fly direct. I used a popular online flight planning program to plot the course so that I could see where the course line transitioned the two sectionals. I noticed the nice magenta course line on the screen remained just west and clear of a lower 3;600 MSL floor of the class B airspace. That fact stuck in my mind. On the sectional; I plotted the transition point at the sectional boundary and then plotted the course line from that point back to the departure airport. I did not notice; however; that the line actually penetrated the lower 3;600 MSL shelf and was not to the west and clear of it. My current sectional has a lot of highlighted course lines emanating from the departure airport and that may have contributed to distracting me from recognizing that. The next morning; the direct flight plan was entered into the G1000. I hand-flew the departure to 3;500 ft; following the GPS course line on the mfd waiting for the 4;000 ft shelf to be cleared. I was demonstrating to my passenger how; using the range button on the mfd as a cursor control; one could determine any airspace limits. I showed him that at 3;500 ft we were under the 4;000 ft shelf. I became focused on the floor altitude and not the shape of the shelf I was seeing and not realizing immediately I was farther east than I thought I would be. The range on the mfd was sufficiently zoomed in that I did not see the course line transition the 3;600 ft shelf. Once clear; I initiated a climb using the autopilot. I was approaching 4;200 MSL when my passenger then asked what the next section was. Next section? It was now obvious on the mfd that there indeed was a next section - the airspace ring defining the outer limit was not previously visible due to range setting. I was in the 3;600-10;000 MSL shelf. I disengaged the autopilot and initiated a descent to below 3;600 MSL. I was confused as to how this happened became more confused when looking at my sectional closer and indeed; the course line went through the lower shelf. I was not in contact with ATC. When finally satisfied I was actually clear of the class B outer ring; I climbed and completed the remainder of the flight as planned.I was very bothered by how I came to the conclusion that I was fine once I 'cleared' the 4;000 ft shelf. When I returned home; I brought up the online program again. It remembers what was being viewed previously and now displayed what I was looking at from the previous evening. There was the magenta line still west of the 3;600 ft shelf. Then I realized the error. The departure airport has a nearby (4 NM) VOR with similar identifier; but without the leading 'K'. I had entered the VOR instead of the airport into the program's flight plan and not realized the error. Because I was interested in the point where the course line crossed the sectional I had zoomed out sufficiently where the course endpoint was sufficiently large to cover the VOR symbology and the weather icon covered all the runways of the departure airport. And I hadn't recognized the other symbology typically surrounding an airport wasn't around the course endpoint. That wasn't the part of the sectional I was interested in. Contributing factors to this incident include the failure on my part to verify the results provided by the tools I was using were indeed accurate and correct. Ironically; although my intent was not to rely fully on technology I failed to recognize that the non-technological tools I had (paper sectionals and course plots) were telling me what I needed to know. Had I also plotted the courseon the tac chart I had for the area; it would have been obvious that the course line penetrated the lower shelf. In the future I will endeavor to use all the tools at my disposal and verify their data.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C182 pilot reports inadvertently entering ORD Class B airspace after carefully preflighting using a web site to determine that his proposed flight track would not enter Class B airspace. DPA was used for planning but the flight actually departed DPA and entry into Class B on the south bound flight.

Narrative: I was to ferry a G1000 equipped aircraft to a maintenance facility for its annual inspection. Although comfortable with the G1000; I still routinely fly with sectional charts as I also frequently fly non-G1000 aircraft. This cross-country flight spanned two sectionals. The departure airport underlies the 4;000 MSL floor of the ORD Class B airspace. While flight planning the night previous to the flight; I decided I would fly direct. I used a popular online flight planning program to plot the course so that I could see where the course line transitioned the two sectionals. I noticed the nice magenta course line on the screen remained just west and clear of a lower 3;600 MSL floor of the Class B airspace. That fact stuck in my mind. On the sectional; I plotted the transition point at the sectional boundary and then plotted the course line from that point back to the departure airport. I did not notice; however; that the line actually penetrated the lower 3;600 MSL shelf and was not to the west and clear of it. My current sectional has a lot of highlighted course lines emanating from the departure airport and that may have contributed to distracting me from recognizing that. The next morning; the direct flight plan was entered into the G1000. I hand-flew the departure to 3;500 FT; following the GPS course line on the MFD waiting for the 4;000 FT shelf to be cleared. I was demonstrating to my passenger how; using the Range button on the MFD as a cursor control; one could determine any airspace limits. I showed him that at 3;500 FT we were under the 4;000 FT shelf. I became focused on the floor altitude and not the shape of the shelf I was seeing and not realizing immediately I was farther east than I thought I would be. The range on the MFD was sufficiently zoomed in that I did not see the course line transition the 3;600 FT shelf. Once clear; I initiated a climb using the autopilot. I was approaching 4;200 MSL when my passenger then asked what the next section was. Next section? It was now obvious on the MFD that there indeed was a next section - the airspace ring defining the outer limit was not previously visible due to Range setting. I was in the 3;600-10;000 MSL shelf. I disengaged the autopilot and initiated a descent to below 3;600 MSL. I was confused as to how this happened became more confused when looking at my sectional closer and indeed; the course line went through the lower shelf. I was not in contact with ATC. When finally satisfied I was actually clear of the Class B outer ring; I climbed and completed the remainder of the flight as planned.I was very bothered by how I came to the conclusion that I was fine once I 'cleared' the 4;000 FT shelf. When I returned home; I brought up the online program again. It remembers what was being viewed previously and now displayed what I was looking at from the previous evening. There was the magenta line still west of the 3;600 FT shelf. Then I realized the error. The departure airport has a nearby (4 NM) VOR with similar identifier; but without the leading 'K'. I had entered the VOR instead of the airport into the program's flight plan and not realized the error. Because I was interested in the point where the course line crossed the sectional I had zoomed out sufficiently where the course endpoint was sufficiently large to cover the VOR symbology and the weather icon covered all the runways of the departure airport. And I hadn't recognized the other symbology typically surrounding an airport wasn't around the course endpoint. That wasn't the part of the sectional I was interested in. Contributing factors to this incident include the failure on my part to verify the results provided by the tools I was using were indeed accurate and correct. Ironically; although my intent was not to rely fully on technology I failed to recognize that the non-technological tools I had (paper sectionals and course plots) were telling me what I needed to know. Had I also plotted the courseon the TAC chart I had for the area; it would have been obvious that the course line penetrated the lower shelf. In the future I will endeavor to use all the tools at my disposal and verify their data.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.