An instrument instructor reported his IFR student began a descent to the final approach altitude ear...

Attributes
ACN	1151243
Time
Date	201402
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZKC.ARTCC
State Reference	KS
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft Low Wing 1 Eng Fixed Gear
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 50 Flight Crew Total 1250 Flight Crew Type 600
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

Center cleared us for the ILS 18L approach at mdh and told us to maintain 3;000 ft until established. It was the first IFR cross country for my student; and it was a very high workload flight for me to try to teach; watch over what the student was doing; help them set up for the instrument approach and understand what they needed to do; and there had been lots of other traffic throughout the flight. As we were flying towards cabbi intersection (the outer marker for the ILS) I looked down at my approach plate and at the radio to check what my student had started a descent down to 2;200 [ft] because he was apparently confused. I caught him and told him to go back to 3;000 [ft]; but as I did that center yelled at us for being at 2;700 [ft] when we weren't established on the approach. We immediately climbed back.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Instrument Instructor reported his IFR student began a descent to the final approach altitude early and was warned by ATC to return to the cleared altitude.

Narrative: Center cleared us for the ILS 18L approach at MDH and told us to maintain 3;000 FT until established. It was the first IFR cross country for my student; and it was a very high workload flight for me to try to teach; watch over what the student was doing; help them set up for the instrument approach and understand what they needed to do; and there had been lots of other traffic throughout the flight. As we were flying towards CABBI intersection (the outer marker for the ILS) I looked down at my approach plate and at the radio to check what my student had started a descent down to 2;200 [FT] because he was apparently confused. I caught him and told him to go back to 3;000 [FT]; but as I did that Center yelled at us for being at 2;700 [FT] when we weren't established on the approach. We immediately climbed back.

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.

An instrument instructor reported his IFR student began a descent to the final approach altitude early and was warned by ATC to return to the cleared altitude.