Burrito Bandit

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?

Ottopilot

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

NoyGonnaDoIt

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.

WalkOfShame

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.

woodfinx

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.

Ewfflyer

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.

shdw

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.

snippercr

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.

NoyGonnaDoIt

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?"

bryris

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.