Narrative:

The days mission would be pipeline patrol of a route that would bring me back home in 3.0 hours flight time which was opposite my normal week schedule due to aircraft maintenance [the next day]. I started my morning checking weather; notams; and tfrs as usual. The weather indicated reduced visibility over the entire area due to smoke from the 30+ fires burning in our area. I checked the FAA website for tfrs and noted that there were more on the screen than I had ever seen before. I immediately noticed a tfr on my southern route that would need planning to get around [2 days later]. I checked my route for the day and thought the fires were burning in the same places. I had been watching these tfrs over the weekend to get glimpses of how my week would go. The fire indicated southeast of ZZZ had been in the same spot as days before. (What I failed to realize is that the fire I had been tracking had disappeared and a new fire had taken its place further north).the flight was routine until I entered my first airspace of the day. My route goes from a class C right into a class D. Due to intense fire tanker operations at ZZZ they had set up a temporary tower on the field a week prior. I contacted the tower about a minute from leaving my last class D airspace. This airspace hadn't been defined very well (I queried the tower the previous week and they said they were treating it like a class D; but they were mainly concerned with airport operations) and I could hear other pilots figuring out the quirks of this new airspace. As I transition a busy area; I try to visualize each aircraft's intention and future path and determine if I should change my flight profile in any way to accommodate or change spacing in the VFR environment. The traffic here was very heavy with fire tankers landing refueling and departing. Local traffic was doing its best to blend in with all the changes. From the moment I entered the second class C; I spotted numerous reportable issues with the pipeline. When we see an issue; we circle; take photos and take down all relevant information to the sighting such as description; milepost information; GPS; road names; and landmarks. There were six such occurrences through the four airspace areas.with the constant radio communications; traffic spotting; pipeline observation; and information gathering the workload was very high. I headed east and conferred with my observer on completion of our work related tasks. We have xm satellite service on our hand held garmin; and these depict tfrs. This GPS was being used as a work tool to catch up on pipeline sighting locations and flight navigation was visual and off the panel mounted GPS. There was no visible smoke off the ground ahead and we proceeded with our patrol. Upon landing; I checked on the fires for the next day. I looked at a website that gives data on burning fires and their containment status. When I looked at the photos of the fire I thought I had passed north of; I saw that it was closer to the highway than I had thought and realized that this had to be a new fire and I had possibly penetrated the north side of the tfr.as a professional pilot I try to stay humble and learn from every flight. I have a desire to get better and realize that I can always take more steps to become a safer and more capable pilot. When analyzing this flight; I recognize a chain of events that are atypical to a normal flight.1. Off normal schedule due to maintenance.2. 30+ fires burning in area with reduced visibility3. Complex airspace4. High traffic volume5. High pilot workloadrecognizing these events piling up earlier in the flight would have prevented this incident from happening. On top of acquiring more thorough tfr briefings; I will increase airspace awareness by initiating tfr route checks when I encounter any of the events above. I can utilize my observer to take more workload in these situations and check and balance my new procedures adopted since this event.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A pilot of a light aircraft; performing pipeline patrol duty; reported inadvertently penetrating a wildfire TFR due to the rapidly changing restricted airspace environment.

Narrative: The days mission would be pipeline patrol of a route that would bring me back home in 3.0 hours flight time which was opposite my normal week schedule due to aircraft maintenance [the next day]. I started my morning checking weather; NOTAMs; and TFRs as usual. The weather indicated reduced visibility over the entire area due to smoke from the 30+ fires burning in our area. I checked the FAA website for TFRs and noted that there were more on the screen than I had ever seen before. I immediately noticed a TFR on my southern route that would need planning to get around [2 days later]. I checked my route for the day and thought the fires were burning in the same places. I had been watching these TFRs over the weekend to get glimpses of how my week would go. The fire indicated SE of ZZZ had been in the same spot as days before. (what I failed to realize is that the fire I had been tracking had disappeared and a new fire had taken its place further North).The flight was routine until I entered my first airspace of the day. My route goes from a class C right into a class D. Due to intense fire tanker operations at ZZZ they had set up a temporary tower on the field a week prior. I contacted the tower about a minute from leaving my last class D airspace. This airspace hadn't been defined very well (I queried the tower the previous week and they said they were treating it like a class D; but they were mainly concerned with airport operations) and I could hear other pilots figuring out the quirks of this new airspace. As I transition a busy area; I try to visualize each aircraft's intention and future path and determine if I should change my flight profile in any way to accommodate or change spacing in the VFR environment. The traffic here was very heavy with fire tankers landing refueling and departing. Local traffic was doing its best to blend in with all the changes. From the moment I entered the second class C; I spotted numerous reportable issues with the pipeline. When we see an issue; we circle; take photos and take down all relevant information to the sighting such as description; milepost information; GPS; road names; and landmarks. There were six such occurrences through the four airspace areas.With the constant radio communications; traffic spotting; pipeline observation; and information gathering the workload was very high. I headed east and conferred with my observer on completion of our work related tasks. We have XM Satellite service on our hand held Garmin; and these depict TFRs. This GPS was being used as a work tool to catch up on pipeline sighting locations and flight navigation was visual and off the panel mounted GPS. There was no visible smoke off the ground ahead and we proceeded with our patrol. Upon landing; I checked on the fires for the next day. I looked at a website that gives data on burning fires and their containment status. When I looked at the photos of the fire I thought I had passed North of; I saw that it was closer to the highway than I had thought and realized that this had to be a new fire and I had possibly penetrated the North side of the TFR.As a professional pilot I try to stay humble and learn from every flight. I have a desire to get better and realize that I can always take more steps to become a safer and more capable pilot. When analyzing this flight; I recognize a chain of events that are atypical to a normal flight.1. Off normal schedule due to maintenance.2. 30+ fires burning in area with reduced visibility3. Complex airspace4. High traffic volume5. High pilot workloadRecognizing these events piling up earlier in the flight would have prevented this incident from happening. On top of acquiring more thorough TFR briefings; I will increase airspace awareness by initiating TFR route checks when I encounter any of the events above. I can utilize my observer to take more workload in these situations and check and balance my new procedures adopted since this event.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.