Narrative:

We originally took off from mry and tried to pick up our IFR flight on file; but couldn't maintain VFR to pick up clearance so we diverted to sns and tried to file another IFR flight plan on the ground by flight service station. After calling flight service station [and] filing flight plan; we called the frequency assigned by the flight service and copied the clearance. The clearance was cleared via odp; radar vectors; V111; mod; then direct. I checked the odp for runway 31 procedure but somehow I was looking at diverse vector area and thought we [were] supposed to receive a heading and radar vectors after takeoff. After we took off ATC told us to climb maintain 6;000 feet. I didn't know where to fly and asked ATC I thought I will have radar vectors to V111. While I got closer to cloud I thought that would be a better idea to maintain VFR first before I go into cloud because I don't want to get into IMC without knowing where to fly. Then I flew away from the IFR clearance and tried to maintain VFR while trying to figure out what should I do. Finally; ATC gave us a heading and climb 6;000 feet via that heading and join V111 to mod.it was a series [of] mistakes made by us. First of all; after we stopped at sns we really should take few more minutes to do flight plan or after knowing the flight plan assigned by ATC we should've took few more minutes to prepare for it instead of just depart right away. Second; we should be more familiar with odp. I never used odp before and I shouldn't do the thing I'm not familiar with; and we have that kind of mindset that we want to go home as soon as possible so we didn't do a proper flight plan before we departed. Looking back [at] all the mistakes I did last night I really realize that could lead to a bad result and we were just lucky nothing happened to us. I learned my lesson and that will never happen again. Also; I'm going to do some review lessons with my instructor [to] make sure I'm clear with all the knowledge and procedures with instrument flying.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Small aircraft pilot reported confusion with an IFR clearance.

Narrative: We originally took off from MRY and tried to pick up our IFR flight on file; but couldn't maintain VFR to pick up clearance so we diverted to SNS and tried to file another IFR flight plan on the ground by Flight Service Station. After calling Flight Service Station [and] filing flight plan; we called the frequency assigned by the flight service and copied the clearance. The clearance was cleared via ODP; Radar Vectors; V111; MOD; then direct. I checked the ODP for Runway 31 procedure but somehow I was looking at Diverse Vector Area and thought we [were] supposed to receive a heading and radar vectors after takeoff. After we took off ATC told us to climb maintain 6;000 feet. I didn't know where to fly and asked ATC I thought I will have radar vectors to V111. While I got closer to cloud I thought that would be a better idea to maintain VFR first before I go into cloud because I don't want to get into IMC without knowing where to fly. Then I flew away from the IFR clearance and tried to maintain VFR while trying to figure out what should I do. Finally; ATC gave us a heading and climb 6;000 feet via that heading and join V111 to MOD.It was a series [of] mistakes made by us. First of all; after we stopped at SNS we really should take few more minutes to do flight plan or after knowing the flight plan assigned by ATC we should've took few more minutes to prepare for it instead of just depart right away. Second; we should be more familiar with ODP. I never used ODP before and I shouldn't do the thing I'm not familiar with; and we have that kind of mindset that we want to go home as soon as possible so we didn't do a proper flight plan before we departed. Looking back [at] all the mistakes I did last night I really realize that could lead to a bad result and we were just lucky nothing happened to us. I learned my lesson and that will never happen again. Also; I'm going to do some review lessons with my instructor [to] make sure I'm clear with all the knowledge and procedures with instrument flying.

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.