Miscommunication between approach and a student pilot on a solo cross country leads ATC to believe t...

Narrative:

On my last leg of a solo cross country flight. As I was on course; I called nashville approach for flight following. They tried to give me direction; but were breaking up. They started to communicate through another aircraft until I couldn't hear them either. After 5 minutes I knew I was in range for atl center; so I contacted them. I continued with atl center until I saw my destination and reported that to atl center. Nashville contacted my instructor and told him I was lost and they had lost contact with me. They also told me to squawk 7700 and got emergency info from my instructor. All I was looking for was flight following. Nashville approach thought I was lost. I should have contacted indianapolis center instead of nashville approach. ATC should have asked if I needed to declare an emergency for being lost; or directed me to indianapolis center. I didn't know they thought I was in trouble; they didn't know all I was trying to get was flight following as a precaution.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Miscommunication between Approach and a Student pilot on a solo cross country leads ATC to believe the Student is lost. The Student was able to continue to destination after contacting ATL Center for flight following.

Narrative: On my last leg of a solo cross country flight. As I was on course; I called Nashville Approach for flight following. They tried to give me direction; but were breaking up. They started to communicate through another aircraft until I couldn't hear them either. After 5 minutes I knew I was in range for ATL Center; so I contacted them. I continued with ATL Center until I saw my destination and reported that to ATL Center. Nashville contacted my Instructor and told him I was lost and they had lost contact with me. They also told me to squawk 7700 and got emergency info from my instructor. All I was looking for was flight following. Nashville Approach thought I was lost. I should have contacted Indianapolis Center instead of Nashville Approach. ATC should have asked if I needed to declare an emergency for being lost; or directed me to Indianapolis Center. I didn't know they thought I was in trouble; they didn't know all I was trying to get was flight following as a precaution.

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.

Attributes
ACN	883080
Time
Date	201004
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZTL.ARTCC
State Reference	GA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cessna 150
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Trainee
Qualification	Flight Crew Student
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 15 Flight Crew Total 40 Flight Crew Type 40
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Miscommunication between approach and a student pilot on a solo cross country leads ATC to believe the student is lost. The student was able to continue to destination after contacting atl center for flight following.