A pilot flying a friend for picture taking descended near padre island; texas and passed between two...

Narrative:

I had taken a passenger (also a pilot) on a pleasure flight to take pictures of his home on padre island; tx. For this flight the airplane's right front seat was out; with the passenger sitting in the right rear seat. After takeoff; I contacted corpus christie approach/departure because I was concerned about a tfr over and to the east of padre island. Approach assured me that when they were talking with me that I would not have to worry about the tfr. Upon flying southbound to padre island it became evident that it was too cloudy below for photos. I told approach that I would circle their class C airspace on top; and return to my departure airport. I also thought of landing at an airport called ingleside for fuel. Ingleside turned out to be covered with clouds. As I circled the entire class C airspace at an altitude between 3;000 and 4;000 ft; my passenger asked me for the GPS 496; which was on a beanbag mount. The GPS 496 had a fresh obstacle database. He saw that I had another GPS to navigate by; so I handed him the unit. This was a contributing factor to the incident. As I turned north; continuing the path around the class C; the clouds became fewer so I gradually descended at that point. Approach exchanged very few words with me; probably because I was out of their airspace; but they contacted me to change frequencies. At some point around the class C; heading northeast; I descended around clouds with the intent to find the ground. During the descent I saw a propeller blade of a wind driven generator out my left window. My passenger saw another blade out his right window. Thus; I came too close to a propeller driven power unit; the type that now ranges across the land. I added power and climbed; but of course by then was beyond the windmills. I asked my friend if he saw the obstacles on the GPS unit. He said he did and got the warning; but he never mentioned it. The obstacle alarm remained on the screen as I glanced at it. Neither did corpus christie approach/departure mention anything about the power generators in my flight path. If the GPS 496 unit was on top of the instrument panel where I could see it; I would have had the obstacle warning plainly in view. After that I continued back to my destination for landing; which was in the clear.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A pilot flying a friend for picture taking descended near Padre Island; Texas and passed between two windmills which the reporter's friend failed to notify the pilot about after seeing them on the GPS.

Narrative: I had taken a passenger (also a pilot) on a pleasure flight to take pictures of his home on Padre Island; TX. For this flight the airplane's right front seat was out; with the passenger sitting in the right rear seat. After takeoff; I contacted Corpus Christie Approach/Departure because I was concerned about a TFR over and to the east of Padre Island. Approach assured me that when they were talking with me that I would not have to worry about the TFR. Upon flying southbound to Padre Island it became evident that it was too cloudy below for photos. I told Approach that I would circle their Class C airspace on top; and return to my departure airport. I also thought of landing at an airport called Ingleside for fuel. Ingleside turned out to be covered with clouds. As I circled the entire Class C airspace at an altitude between 3;000 and 4;000 FT; my passenger asked me for the GPS 496; which was on a beanbag mount. The GPS 496 had a fresh obstacle database. He saw that I had another GPS to navigate by; so I handed him the unit. This was a contributing factor to the incident. As I turned north; continuing the path around the Class C; the clouds became fewer so I gradually descended at that point. Approach exchanged very few words with me; probably because I was out of their airspace; but they contacted me to change frequencies. At some point around the Class C; heading northeast; I descended around clouds with the intent to find the ground. During the descent I saw a propeller blade of a wind driven generator out my left window. My passenger saw another blade out his right window. Thus; I came too close to a propeller driven power unit; the type that now ranges across the land. I added power and climbed; but of course by then was beyond the windmills. I asked my friend if he saw the obstacles on the GPS unit. He said he did and got the warning; but he never mentioned it. The obstacle alarm remained on the screen as I glanced at it. Neither did Corpus Christie approach/departure mention anything about the power generators in my flight path. If the GPS 496 unit was on top of the instrument panel where I could see it; I would have had the obstacle warning plainly in view. After that I continued back to my destination for landing; which was in the clear.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1068067
Time
Date	201302
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	CRP.TRACON
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft Low Wing 1 Eng Fixed Gear
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 40 Flight Crew Total 7300 Flight Crew Type 4500
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Ground Conflict Critical Deviation - Procedural FAR
Miss Distance	Horizontal 300 Vertical 300

A pilot flying a friend for picture taking descended near padre island; texas and passed between two windmills which the reporter's friend failed to notify the pilot about after seeing them on the GPS.