Narrative:

My student and I had a possible pilot deviation. We were on a IFR flight plan in a PA-28. The departure controller cleared us to climb to 4000 feet msl. Right after he gave us the clearance; he then asked us what our route of flight was. We repeated our route to him and told him that we plan on doing practice instrument approaches at the airports on our flight plan. The controller then came back told us with a easterly heading we should be at 5000 feet msl. Where the confusions and possible pilot deviation came about was when he told us this. Our interpretation and what we thought we heard was that we were then cleared to 5000 feet msl. We continued our climb from 3000 feet msl through 4000 feet msl to 4500 msl. At 4500 feet msl the controller switched us over to the next controller. It was the next controller that told us to descend from 4500 feet msl to 4000 feet msl. This possible pilot deviation might not have happened if the departure controller would have conducted his procedures differently. If he did not want us to climb to 5000 feet msl; there was no reason for him making the comment that because we were on a easterly heading we should be at 5000 feet msl. We were just trying to fly the altitudes that the controller was assigning us to fly. When he made that comment; my student and I both thought we were cleared to 5000 feet msl. We would have climbed to 4000 feet msl and leveled off until our next assigned altitude. This possible pilot deviation was the result of miss communication of information that was not need to be given over the radio.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: General aviation aircraft on IFR instructional flight experienced pilot deviation climbing to an unauthorized altitude; reporter claiming controller's comments regarding altitude and direction of flight led to the confused altitude assignment.

Narrative: My student and I had a possible pilot deviation. We were on a IFR flight plan in a PA-28. The departure controller cleared us to climb to 4000 feet msl. Right after he gave us the clearance; he then asked us what our route of flight was. We repeated our route to him and told him that we plan on doing practice instrument approaches at the airports on our flight plan. The controller then came back told us with a easterly heading we should be at 5000 feet msl. Where the confusions and possible pilot deviation came about was when he told us this. Our interpretation and what we thought we heard was that we were then cleared to 5000 feet msl. We continued our climb from 3000 feet msl through 4000 feet msl to 4500 msl. At 4500 feet msl the controller switched us over to the next controller. It was the next controller that told us to descend from 4500 feet msl to 4000 feet msl. This possible pilot deviation might not have happened if the departure controller would have conducted his procedures differently. If he did not want us to climb to 5000 feet msl; there was no reason for him making the comment that because we were on a easterly heading we should be at 5000 feet msl. We were just trying to fly the altitudes that the controller was assigning us to fly. When he made that comment; my student and I both thought we were cleared to 5000 feet msl. We would have climbed to 4000 feet msl and leveled off until our next assigned altitude. This possible pilot deviation was the result of miss communication of information that was not need to be given over the radio.

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.