Should I file a NASA form for this?
 

Last night I was giving an aircraft checkout to another pilot. During our flight, we made a full stop at a nearby Class C airport. Our departure instructions were runway heading till 800', then turn on course to our non-towered airport about 15nm away, maintain 1,000'. The pilot flying was doing everything fine. We're still inside the inner ring (Surface - 4,000') and not quite yet in the outer ring of the Charlie airspace (1,200'-4,000') when the controller tells us to switch to 1200 frequency change approved. So I turn my head to the MFD and begin preparing it for our next task, also switching the MFD from the terrain avoidance page to the local chart page to use after we clear the Charlie airspace. The pilot switches the radios, but then climbs upto 1,500' which puts us in the outer ring now, I told the pilot to descend immediately, our instructions were to maintain 1,000'. He asks me if that was still valid even though we were given a frequency change? I told him, yes it still is a valid instruction.

Should I file a NASA form, call the tower and apologize or am I did I misunderstand our instructions and we were ok?

Probably not a big deal, but "when in doubt, whip one out."

The secondary effect of semi-immunity aside, your student's confusion about what happens to an ATC instruction when there is a frequency change in Class C airspace clearly fulfills the ASRS primary purpose of collecting data that would help advance aviation safety.

File it.

If the controller never said anything and you descended back down right away, you're probably fine, but it never hurts to file one. Remember you can fill as many as you want, but you can only use one every 5 years.

If it was tower that cut you loose its not a big deal...ive been let go inside Class C airspace before by tower just so approach wouldn't have to deal with us.

And nothing would stick anyway unless they said "Squawk 1200, remain clear of class C." because you had previously established 2-way radio contact.

You should be fine, but........it never hurts to CYA. And as mentioned, you can file all you want, so there's no penalty there.

X2 You busted airspace. Given the circumstances it probably won't be pursued, but you can't know that and neither can we. It cannot hurt you to fill out a NASA report, so there really isn't any reason not to other than being lazy.

I think this is what NoyGonnaDoIt was saying, but the REAL reason for those NASA reports are to collect useful information to help us later on down the road. The get-out-of-jail-free part is just a benefit. You should full one out because that's useful stuff for NASA.

I fill them out when ever I do something that I think would be useful, even though I know no one is going to yell at me for. I did some touch and goes in the pattern but forgot to click my transponder over to "ALT." Why? I was in a hurry and didn't do the checklist. Moral? DO YOU DAMN CHECKLIST. I figured NASA could draw the same conclusion and do something useful with it.

That aside... fill it out anyways. Even if it helps someone later on down the road.

It was. But as you can tell from any discussion of ASRS, although the FAA did the program this way (with the semi-immunity) in order to keep people from being afraid to make reports, the hope of being protected from responsibility seems to be the only reason most people actually make the reports to begin with - "if there's no CYA value, why bother helping out?"

Technically, if you are told to hold 1,000 feet by the tower, then are dropped (i.e. squawk VFR and freq change approved), the 1,000 foot clearance no longer applies once you clear the airspace. Hence, deviating from the 1,000 instruction isn't your concern if you cleared the first ring. However, the 300 bust of the 2nd ring is the concern here.

I had "a friend" bust bravo one time by XXX feet from a departure from a class D satellite airport because he had his head up his ass before realizing what had happened. After dive bombing back to below the shelf he was very humbled and knew that the tower guy had seen it. Nothing was ever said by anyone to this day. But "my friend" did file a NASA report just to be safe.

Things happen to the best of us sometimes. File a report and keep your fingers crossed for a few months. The more time that passes, the more confidence you'll get that you won't be singled out.

I have also done the same thing in a class B airspace. My student was climbing out, and I got distracted enough that we went into the airspace by about 500 feet. I immediately cleared the airspace and filled out an ASRS form after landing just as a CYA action. I never heard anything about it.

It sounds like the controller forgot to tell you "cancel altitude restriction" when sending you over to the VFR side. I doubt the intention was to have you fly 10NM at 1000 feet to clear the outer ring and if they didn't want you in the airspace there would have been a reason for it like conflicting traffic overhead. If that were the case he wouldn't have had you squawk 1200 and change freqs.

I'd fill out the NASA simply for he mishandling of the handoff info from tower to controller but I'd say you didn't actually bust.

I would be shocked if any controller would violate you busting for a few seconds, unless it cause you to deviate another aircraft. On my personal scale of things that could go wrong I would rate it about a 2 out of 10. I would sweat it. About 5 years ago the controller said he would call my base. I turned in and came way to close to a cargo plane on final. The controller called me and said I needed to wake up. He said all the bells went of in the tower. Nothing happened.

I encourage everyone saying things like "I can't see them doing it," "it doesn't seem likely," "I wouldn't report you," etc to read this:

Let me ask you this. Imagine you were doing 75 in a 65 and drove by something you thought was a speed trap camera on the highway. Now imagine there is a NASA reporting system for cars, where if you report your speeding in this zone you won't have legal action taken. A buddy of yours, a cop says, "don't worry the cameras only send tickets for people going over 15 mph over the speed limit."

Now you have two options, listen to your buddy who didn't program the particular camera and has no material assets (including dollars/jail time) to lose by giving you faulty advice. Option two is take 5 minutes to fill out a form so if they give you a ticket you don't get in trouble.

Is 5 minutes of time really worth a possible violation? You have absolutely nothing to lose by filling out the report, all you do is gain a big safety net should things go south.

I personally tell my students to print some out and carry them in your flight bag in letters that are pre filled out. If you feel you might be at risk of a violation, sit down and fill it out to mail it that day. I have 3 in my flight bag ready to go at all times. Better safe than stupid.

My theory is, if you haven't heard anything yet I wouldn't worry. But the other poster is right. If this incident just occurred you should probably fill one out if you feel you truly did something wrong. I still think on my violation scale its about a 3 out of 10. But don't listen to me. When I hit wind shear on final about 5 years ago into a short grass strip I went full power at about the stall point. I brushed the trees and wedged a branch between the brake pads and the rotor. I guess I should have filled one out.

I'll never forget the sight of looking out and seeing a small branch flapping in the wind thinking "what I'm I going to do".

Seriously? How bad of a pilot are you?..........Before you get your panties in a wad, it was meant as a joke. Good advice, but 3....get out of MY airspace!

Three is just so I don't have to refill my supply instantly if I have continuous flights. If I file one today because of a bust I don't have to run home to prepare another for a later flight. It allows me some slack and to this day I have only used one of them. Took me about two months to get my stash back to 3 after that one use, I am lazy.

I stopped in at the NASA ASRS booth at a Moffett Airshow. There were only two forms left on the table, and I asked if I could have a couple more.

Needless to say, a good laugh was had by all.

~Foxy