The pilot of a homebuilt became distracted by what was later determined to have been a ghost target ...

Narrative:

I was flying west on a track; parallel to the southwest leg of outlaw MOA while remaining about 2-3 miles south of the MOA border. The wing leveler was engaged on heading hold.I was aware of the R-2310 airspace and planned to remain clear before turning and continuing descent to proceed to my destination; ffz. I had a new tablet program giving navigation information (sectional map view) and a pcas [portable collision avoidance system] which gives only distance and altitude clearance. Bearing is unknown.for the previous hour plus I had traffic indicated at approximately 4 miles and 200 feet differential. It varied slightly. I could not see any traffic and felt it might be some sort of equipment malfunction as the reading was pretty steady for the previous long time period. I doubted that some other traffic was pacing me. I kept looking however; as it kept bugging me that I couldn't find it; if there was any such traffic.somewhat later I noted that the pcas displayed closer separation with the 4 mile traffic. I became anxious as the distance counted down to a mile and the alert light began flashing. I clicked off the wing leveler and turned to different headings to look for possible overtaking traffic.I became fixed on finding the traffic and after a few minutes and a descent; the traffic alert disappeared and I proceeded to ffz for landing. About 10 miles later; I noticed the tablet 'bread crumbs' showed that I had cut across the south section of R-2310.I believe the problem was caused by me not dividing my workload between navigating and traffic avoidance. Using both the tablet/sectional chart display and the pcas were mitigating factors since their systems were new to me.in addition the right tank had considerably more fuel in it than the left and the airplane tended to turn right when the autopilot was disconnected. My traffic distraction allowed the airplane to turn to a more northerly track and head for R-2310.after landing; the pcas antenna was examined and found to be tilted away from vertical; which I have been told can cause ghost images. That has now been corrected and a follow up flight test showed no ghost images. I will do a better job of navigating; controlling heading and avoiding possible traffic conflicts.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The pilot of a homebuilt became distracted by what was later determined to have been a ghost target on his Portable Collision Avoidance System and drifted into an MOA he had intended to parallel enroute.

Narrative: I was flying west on a track; parallel to the SW leg of Outlaw MOA while remaining about 2-3 miles south of the MOA border. The wing leveler was engaged on heading hold.I was aware of the R-2310 airspace and planned to remain clear before turning and continuing descent to proceed to my destination; FFZ. I had a new tablet program giving navigation information (sectional map view) and a PCAS [Portable Collision Avoidance System] which gives only distance and altitude clearance. Bearing is unknown.For the previous hour plus I had traffic indicated at approximately 4 miles and 200 feet differential. It varied slightly. I could not see any traffic and felt it might be some sort of equipment malfunction as the reading was pretty steady for the previous long time period. I doubted that some other traffic was pacing me. I kept looking however; as it kept bugging me that I couldn't find it; if there was any such traffic.Somewhat later I noted that the PCAS displayed closer separation with the 4 mile traffic. I became anxious as the distance counted down to a mile and the ALERT light began flashing. I clicked off the wing leveler and turned to different headings to look for possible overtaking traffic.I became fixed on finding the traffic and after a few minutes and a descent; the traffic alert disappeared and I proceeded to FFZ for landing. About 10 miles later; I noticed the tablet 'bread crumbs' showed that I had cut across the south section of R-2310.I believe the problem was caused by me not dividing my workload between navigating and traffic avoidance. Using both the tablet/sectional chart display and the PCAS were mitigating factors since their systems were new to me.In addition the right tank had considerably more fuel in it than the left and the airplane tended to turn right when the autopilot was disconnected. My traffic distraction allowed the airplane to turn to a more northerly track and head for R-2310.After landing; the PCAS antenna was examined and found to be tilted away from vertical; which I have been told can cause ghost images. That has now been corrected and a follow up flight test showed no ghost images. I will do a better job of navigating; controlling heading and avoiding possible traffic conflicts.

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	1125668
Time
Date	201310
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	P08.Airport
State Reference	AZ
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Amateur/Home Built/Experimental
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	TCAS Equipment
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 27 Flight Crew Total 6230 Flight Crew Type 2930
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Airspace Violation All Types

The pilot of a homebuilt became distracted by what was later determined to have been a ghost target on his portable collision avoidance system and drifted into an MOA he had intended to parallel enroute.