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A general aviation instructor and student reported entering class B airspace before receiving a clearance.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1380046 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201608 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1801-2400 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | EZF.Airport |
| State Reference | VA |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Night |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Small Aircraft |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Cruise |
| Route In Use | Direct |
| Flight Plan | None |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Instructor Pilot Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Commercial |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30 Flight Crew Total 830 Flight Crew Type 150 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Airspace Violation All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence |
Narrative:
I was instructing a student from ezf back to [home airport]. Took off and plan was to stay out of special flight rules area (sfra) outside of the west side of dulles airspace. Upon taking off saw flashes of lightning in distance. Using on board uplink saw cells about 50 miles away. I was on flight following and asked if controller had any cells on his radar. He said no. I was at about 1400 feet MSL in the 1500 shelf area on the west side and terrain warning came up. I climbed into class bravo airspace to avoid obstacle at the same time requested a bravo clearance which was given. I had already received a sfra clearance when I picked up flight following. I believe I was in bravo without the clearance initially. Generally I stay further west and the shelf area of bravo starts at 4500 feet giving me plenty of clearance. Since I was trying to shorten the trip since there was cells west and north I did not adequately factor in issues with terrain and obstacles in the lower shelf area. I was worried about the thunderstorms in the distance and let that issue not allow me to realize the more immediate danger of flying too low necessitating a climb into bravo airspace. The better thing to do would have been to request a bravo clearance and keep a safe altitude.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A general aviation instructor and student reported entering class B airspace before receiving a clearance.
Narrative: I was instructing a student from EZF back to [home airport]. Took off and plan was to stay out of Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) outside of the west side of Dulles airspace. Upon taking off saw flashes of lightning in distance. Using on board uplink saw cells about 50 miles away. I was on flight following and asked if controller had any cells on his radar. He said no. I was at about 1400 feet MSL in the 1500 shelf area on the west side and terrain warning came up. I climbed into class Bravo airspace to avoid obstacle at the same time requested a Bravo clearance which was given. I had already received a SFRA clearance when I picked up flight following. I believe I was in Bravo without the clearance initially. Generally I stay further west and the shelf area of Bravo starts at 4500 feet giving me plenty of clearance. Since I was trying to shorten the trip since there was cells west and north I did not adequately factor in issues with terrain and obstacles in the lower shelf area. I was worried about the thunderstorms in the distance and let that issue not allow me to realize the more immediate danger of flying too low necessitating a climb into Bravo airspace. The better thing to do would have been to request a Bravo clearance and keep a safe altitude.
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.