Narrative:

While working north departure I radar identified TBM7 a north bound departure; and issued a turn to a 330 degree heading. I also issued traffic for the turn was a boeing 737 at one zero thousand descending to six thousand. I observed TBM7 had taken the wrong heading and turned right to a 030 degree heading instead of left. Upon observing this; I reissued the 330 degree heading and told TBM7 to maintain five thousand. I heard the pilot read back the altitude of five thousand; by this point he was tracking just off the right side of the B737 jet. I continued to work traffic then scanned and observed the TBM7 aircraft at five thousand two hundred feet and continuing to climb to five thousand five hundred feet. When I noticed that the TBM7 aircraft had busted altitude the traffic was no factor. I then asked the pilot if he realized he just climbed through his assigned altitude of five thousand and he replied with yes I did blow though my assigned altitude. I then called the arrival sector who was working the boeing 737 to let them know of the incident. I don't believe that [the] boeing 737 took a resolution advisory but that's what I was later told. I also informed the supervisor on duty who looked at the replay and said there had been a loss of separation. This process had taken several minutes and I had also informed the pilot of the possible pilot deviation and to contact the approach control upon landing. The incident occurred due to the pilots' lack of awareness to his assigned altitude. This happens on a daily basis with general aviation pilots around the country. Even a loss of 100 ft is still a loss; awareness of assigned altitude in a high traffic terminal environment can not be iterated enough. These pilots need to realize that an assigned altitude is just that without these separation minimums flying around the country is going to slow. These general aviation pilots need to realize there not the only aircraft flying.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: I90 Controller described a conflict event when an IFR general aviation aircraft climbed above assigned altitude.

Narrative: While working North Departure I RADAR identified TBM7 a north bound departure; and issued a turn to a 330 degree heading. I also issued traffic for the turn was a Boeing 737 at one zero thousand descending to six thousand. I observed TBM7 had taken the wrong heading and turned right to a 030 degree heading instead of left. Upon observing this; I reissued the 330 degree heading and told TBM7 to maintain five thousand. I heard the pilot read back the altitude of five thousand; by this point he was tracking just off the right side of the B737 jet. I continued to work traffic then scanned and observed the TBM7 aircraft at five thousand two hundred feet and continuing to climb to five thousand five hundred feet. When I noticed that the TBM7 aircraft had busted altitude the traffic was no factor. I then asked the pilot if he realized he just climbed through his assigned altitude of five thousand and he replied with yes I did blow though my assigned altitude. I then called the arrival sector who was working the Boeing 737 to let them know of the incident. I don't believe that [the] Boeing 737 took a resolution advisory but that's what I was later told. I also informed the supervisor on duty who looked at the replay and said there had been a loss of separation. This process had taken several minutes and I had also informed the pilot of the possible pilot deviation and to contact the Approach Control upon landing. The incident occurred due to the pilots' lack of awareness to his assigned altitude. This happens on a daily basis with general aviation pilots around the country. Even a loss of 100 FT is still a loss; awareness of assigned altitude in a high traffic terminal environment can not be iterated enough. These pilots need to realize that an assigned altitude is just that without these separation minimums flying around the country is going to slow. These general aviation pilots need to realize there not the only aircraft flying.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.