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Corporate pilot was questioned by ATC regarding a descent clearance; the confusion apparently involving a 'pilots discretion' vs; normal descent instruction.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 980593 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201111 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZHU.ARTCC |
| State Reference | TX |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Cessna Citation Mustang (C510) |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Descent |
| Route In Use | Direct |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Single Pilot |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 52 Flight Crew Total 1850 Flight Crew Type 450 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Clearance |
Narrative:
Flying along in level flight at FL280; I got an instruction from ATC (houston center) to descend and maintain at pilot´s discretion FL240; I read back. According to my VNAV I would be starting descent in approximately 5 minutes. About one minute later I got a hand off to next controller. I checked in and let him know that I was at FL280 and with a clearance to descend at pilot´s discretion to FL240. Then he told me to descend and maintain 9;000 ft. I read back. My confusion was that this was still a pilot´s discretion instruction so I started descent about 4 minutes later. When I started descent; houston center came back to me and told me that he gave me a clearance to descend to 9;000 ft 4 minutes ago and that he was showing on his screen that I was just starting descent; he asked for a reason. I told him that I thought this was a pilot´s discretion instruction; after this he told me that no; it was not a pilot´s discretion instruction; it was a clearance to descend to 9;000. I told him that I was sorry about my confusion; then he asked me to expedite descent; which I did.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Corporate pilot was questioned by ATC regarding a descent clearance; the confusion apparently involving a 'pilots discretion' vs; normal descent instruction.
Narrative: Flying along in level flight at FL280; I got an instruction from ATC (Houston Center) to descend and maintain at pilot´s discretion FL240; I read back. According to my VNAV I would be starting descent in approximately 5 minutes. About one minute later I got a hand off to next controller. I checked in and let him know that I was at FL280 and with a clearance to descend at pilot´s discretion to FL240. Then he told me to descend and maintain 9;000 ft. I read back. My confusion was that this was still a pilot´s discretion instruction so I started descent about 4 minutes later. When I started descent; Houston Center came back to me and told me that he gave me a clearance to descend to 9;000 ft 4 minutes ago and that he was showing on his screen that I was just starting descent; he asked for a reason. I told him that I thought this was a pilot´s discretion instruction; after this he told me that no; it was not a pilot´s discretion instruction; it was a clearance to descend to 9;000. I told him that I was sorry about my confusion; then he asked me to expedite descent; which I did.
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.