A DA40 pilot violated class B airspace after suffering a temporary complete failure of all nav and c...

Narrative:

My wife and I were going to spend a few days together without the kids. We launched normally and the weather was good VFR as forecast. Due to severe weather to the east moving southeast along my route of flight; however; I had planned to go around the class B airport to the west. I would normally get flight following from center but this time I did not. The flight was going along as planned until my garmin 530 stopped functioning. The screen went black and displayed a message 'data card failure'; and then the back up garmin 430 went black shortly after that. I lost all communication and navigation systems. I had my portable radio with me and the plane was flying fine; so it was no emergency; but I should have made a precautionary landing to sort out the GPS problem. I decided to try to reboot the system first.I was able to reboot both the 530 and 430 and they both came back up; but the 530 did not display any information at all. The 430 looked like it was mostly working and the radio and navigation came back too but without my entered flight plan or way point or airspace data. While I was trying to resolve the issue with the garmin; I decided to fly past an airport because I knew that the class B ring in that vicinity is from 4;000 to 8;000 MSL and I wanted some extra altitude in case I needed to glide to a diversion airport. So I initiated a climb to 3;500.when the 530 and 430 came back; I decided that I was able to resume my flight; because I had a radio and a VOR and the plane was flying alright. I thought I was in the outer class B ring; it turns out I was not. I had lost situational awareness. That's when tower said that I had busted the class B and that I needed to call center. They gave me vectors to our destination airport and the flight terminated there successfully. I contacted center and reported what had happened.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A DA40 pilot violated Class B airspace after suffering a temporary complete failure of all nav and com systems. After a partial recovery of nav and com capability attempts to avoid the airspace were initiated but proved untimely.

Narrative: My wife and I were going to spend a few days together without the kids. We launched normally and the weather was good VFR as forecast. Due to severe weather to the east moving southeast along my route of flight; however; I had planned to go around the Class B airport to the west. I would normally get flight following from Center but this time I did not. The flight was going along as planned until my Garmin 530 stopped functioning. The screen went black and displayed a message 'data card failure'; and then the back up Garmin 430 went black shortly after that. I lost all communication and navigation systems. I had my portable radio with me and the plane was flying fine; so it was no emergency; but I should have made a precautionary landing to sort out the GPS problem. I decided to try to reboot the system first.I was able to reboot both the 530 and 430 and they both came back up; but the 530 did not display any information at all. The 430 looked like it was mostly working and the radio and navigation came back too but without my entered flight plan or way point or airspace data. While I was trying to resolve the issue with the Garmin; I decided to fly past an airport because I knew that the Class B ring in that vicinity is from 4;000 to 8;000 MSL and I wanted some extra altitude in case I needed to glide to a diversion airport. So I initiated a climb to 3;500.When the 530 and 430 came back; I decided that I was able to resume my flight; because I had a radio and a VOR and the plane was flying alright. I thought I was in the outer Class B ring; it turns out I was not. I had lost situational awareness. That's when Tower said that I had busted the Class B and that I needed to call Center. They gave me vectors to our destination airport and the flight terminated there successfully. I contacted Center and reported what had happened.

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.

Attributes
ACN	962867
Time
Date	201108
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	DA40 Diamond Star
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	VFR
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 25 Flight Crew Total 220 Flight Crew Type 220
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Airspace Violation All Types

A DA40 pilot violated class B airspace after suffering a temporary complete failure of all nav and com systems. After a partial recovery of nav and com capability attempts to avoid the airspace were initiated but proved untimely.