An agricultural pilot flew through power lines while spraying a field. Believes the use of a GPS mapping system to monitor the spray patterns may have been a distraction; causing him to be head down when the encounter occurred.

Narrative

During a normal day of applying fungicide to a corn field I had started my third pass in a fairly large corn field. The next thing I know I flew right through a three phase power line at the end of the field. Luckily there was only minor damage to the aircraft and I was unhurt except for my pride.I was spraying parallel to some very large power lines. It was around noon and the turbulence was really starting to get choppy! During the spray run there were several things distracting me! 1. The north end of the field had very large trees and small sections of corn in between and it was going to be very difficult to paint in the polygon with accuracy and hit these areas especially with the turbulence kicking up. 2. The large power lines to my right were somewhat intimidating. 3. I was concentrating on following the GPS swath tracking to make sure I was right on track for the pass. This means my eyes were on the light bar tracking system instead of out front looking for obstacles. To avoid this from happening again I will try and look outside a lot more and pay more attention to where the field boundaries are and where the power lines are. Also to be more vigilant about my limits with turbulence when flying low level. One concern I have expressed to the operator is the difficulty and safety aspects involved when trying to paint or spray the chemicals with accuracy in fields that are chopped up by large trees and the pilot ends up staring at the mapping display to see where the field begins and ends according to the polygon we are suppose to fill in! Is it really worth it just so you can prove to the farmer that you sprayed his crops! I could do a better job if I could just swoop in and spray the small sections rather than staring at the monitor inside the cockpit!